Chambers v. Braddock Borough

Citations

• 34 Pa. Super. 407
• 1907 Pa. Super. LEXIS 148

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Borough—Unsafe sidewalk — Country road — Road law— Contributory negligence.</p> <p>A highway may be maintained as a country road within a borough or city in districts not built up or thickly settled. Where a portion of such highway is actually used by the public, the municipality must maintain such portion in a reasonably safe condition for vehicles and pedestrians, and this duty extends not only to the cartway, but also to the sidewalks.</p> <p>A borough may be charged with negligence in failing to keep a sidewalk in repair, where it appears that a defect in the sidewalk was at a point where the cartway was a country road, although a borough highway, that at the point in question the road was thiclcly built up, that the sidewalk was much frequented, and that there was no sidewalk on the other side of the street.</p> <p>In such a case where it appears that the highway was rough and uneven, and the defect in the sidewalk not manifestly dangerous, the court cannot say as a matter of law that a person injured by reason of the defect was guilty of contributory negligence. This question is for the jury.</p> <p>Where the danger is so great and apparent that a person of ordinary prudence would regard the situation as dangerous, and, therefore, avoid it, the court should say as a matter of law that the person taking the risk to his damage, is guilty of contributory negligence; but this can only be done in clear cases.</p> <p>In an action against a borough to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by a fall on a defective sidewalk, the plaintiff testified that he was going from a store to his home between nine and ten o'clock at night; that he took several steps on the boardwalk, and as he placed his right foot on a plank the plank flew up and struck him in the right groin; his -right foot slipped off the end of the plank into the gutter, as a result of which he was thrown forward on the end of the plank into the gutter and street. It appeared that t