Emery v. Philadelphia

Citations

• 208 Pa. 492
• 57 A. 977
• 1904 Pa. LEXIS 791

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Municipalities—Highway—Electric wire — Death.</p> <p>A municipality may not with impunity leave a highly dangerous and insidious obstruction, such as a heavily charged and exposed electric wire, on any part of a public highway or so near it that a traveler, accidentally or intentionally deviating a few feet from the beaten track, may encounter it to the risk of his life.</p> <p>Where a person is killed by a heavily charged and exposed electric wire used by the police department of a city, the city is not relieved from liability by the fact that the accident occurred on the side of a road of which sixteen feet was macadamized in the middle, and that if deceased had kept to the macadamized portion of the road he would not have lost his life.</p> <p>Negligence — Damages—Death—Carlisle tables — Husband and wife.</p> <p>In an action by a wife to recover damages for the death of her husband, the Carlisle tables are admissible as evidence of the expectation of life of the husband, but cannot be used to show the plaintiff’s own expectation of life.</p>