Farrell v. Plymouth Borough

Citations

• 26 Pa. Super. 183
• 1904 Pa. Super. LEXIS 288

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Sidewalk—Contributory negligence — Question for jury.</p> <p>In an action against a borough to recover damages for personal injuries caused by a fall into a hole in a sidewalk upon a street in the built-up part of the borough, it appeared that the sidewalk had originally been paved up to the fence line, but the municipal authorities had required the property owners to move the fence back about two feet, which left within the lines of the new sidewalk space a strip about two feet wide depressed to considerable depth below the general level of the sidewalk. This space had partially been filled in, with cinders and other materials, but at the point where the plaintiff was injured there had been suffered to remain for over a year a depression about eight inches deep which extended into the sidewalk a distance of two feet. The plaintiff was walking along the street leading her child, snow had recently fallen to a considerable depth and a narrow path had been beaten down through the snow by pedestrians. The plaintiff permitted the child which she was leading by the hand to walk in the track beaten through the snow, she herself walking on the sidewalk by the side of the path. The drifting snow had filled up and thus concealed from view the depression in the sidewalk, and the plaintiff stepped into it, fell and was injured. Held that the case was for the jury, and that a verdict and judgment for plaintiff should be sustained.</p>