Dalton v. Towanda Borough

Citations

• 215 Pa. 402
• 64 A. 547
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 809

Syllabus

<p>Municipalities — Boroughs—Sewers—Natural water course — Waters—Explosion of gas — Notice—Negligence.</p> <p>A municipality may connect its sewers and drainage with any natural channel for the flow of water without incurring liability to keep that channel open to its mouth, and the right or liability is not changed though the state, or the owners of the lots through which it passes, have made an artificial and covered substitute in place of a natural channel.</p> <p>The owners of property in a borough for their own convenience and at their own expense, built a stone culvert along and over a creek which was a natural waterway flowing through the borough. Subsequently the owners of a furniture factory laid an iron pipe from the factory to the culvert, and blew what was called sand dust through the pipe into the culvert. This dust was explosive in character, but this fact was not known to the borough authorities, nor was their permission asked or given to lay the pipe. Some years afterwards the borough council passed an ordinance providing for the construction of a public sewer along or near’ the creek. In pursuance of the ordinance a sewer pipe eight inches in diameter was laid for a short distance in the stone culvert. Some years after the pipe was laid, an employee of the borough went into the stone culvert with an open torch to look for leaks in the sewer, and while engaged in this work he was injured by an explosion of the sand dust. Held, that there was nothing to show negligence on the part of the borough, and that it was not liable for the injuries sustained by its employee.</p>