Felt v. West Homestead Borough

Citations

• 260 Pa. 11
• 103 A. 508
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 459

Syllabus

<p>Municipalities — Boroughs—Streets—Failure to repair — Guard rails — Embankment near highway — Fall of pedestrian — Death— Dedication and acceptance of street — Contributory negligence— Sudden death — Case for fury.</p> <p>1. A road may become a public highway by dedication and acceptance by the public without formal action, by the municipality, and, in the absence of express dedication, the public may acquire the right to the highway as against the landowner by continuous use for a period of twenty-one years; and as against the municipality a much shorter period is sufficient to impose upon the public the duty of keeping the road in repair.</p> <p>2. In an action against a borough to recover for death of plaintiff’s husband occasioned by falling from a highway down an embankment, it appeared that the road in question had been in existence and use by the public from thirty to thirty-five years; that, before the incorporation of the borough, the township, out of which the borough was created, repaired the road; that thereafter a street railway company laid a double line of tracks upon the road and paved the portion between the outer rails, the public thereafter using the paved portion of the way; that from that time little or no attention had been given to the portion of the road outside the paved tracks; that the road had never been formally accepted by the borough; that on the night of the accident decedent, who had been walking along the paved part of the road, was compelled to step therefrom to the edge of an embankment by reason of the simultaneous approach of cars from both directions; that the distance from the outer line of the track to the edge of the embankment was from twenty-eight to sixty inches in width and was-partly frozen and slippery, and when decedent stepped upon it he slipped and fell over the embankment. The jury found a verdict for plaintiff upon which judgment was entered. Held, (1) there was sufficient evidence to justify a finding that the