City of Aurora v. Hillman

Citations

• 90 Ill. 61

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal corporation—when chargeable with notice of defects in sidewalk. Where a party is injured from a defective sidewalk, caused by the stringers upon which the boards rested being decayed, so as not' to hold nails, so that a loose board tipped when stepped upon by a companion walking with the person injured, and the proof showed that the stringers had been in this condition a long time before the accident, though it failed to show affirmatively the city knew of the particular board being loose at the time, it was held, that the city was chargeable with notice of the unsafe condition of the walk, and was guilty of negligence in not having it repaired.</p> <p>2. Negligence—contributory in passing over defective sidewalk. A party injured by a fall from a defective sidewalk in a City, can not be held guilty of negligence in not leaving the sidewalk and traveling along the driveway of the street, nor will the mere fact that he might have taken a better and safer sidewalk than the one he did, the latter being on his direct way home, charge him with the want of ordinary care, when he is not aware of such walk being dangerous or unsafe, nor will the fact of his drinking a glass of beer, or his going home with a fellow-workman who, four or five hours before and prior to his afternoon’s work, had drunk three or four glasses of ale, in and of itself be any evidence of a want of reasonable care on the part of the one injured.</p> <p>3. In a suit against a city to recover damages sustained by a fall from defects in a sidewalk, caused by the tipping of a loose board by the plaintiff’s companion, walking with him, the fact of their being intoxicated is a material one, as tending to show want of ordinary care on the part of the plaintiff.</p> <p>4. Same—comparative and contributory. It is not a matter of law that under any and all circumstances a plaintiff, who happens to he passing along a sidewalk with a third person, who is intoxicated, and such intoxication of the th