Holitza v. City of Kansas

Citations

• 68 Kan. 157
• 74 P. 594
• 1903 Kan. LEXIS 423

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Cities and City Oketcers — Excavations in Streets. It is the duty of a city to keep its streets in a reasonably safe condition for public travel, and to that end to place guards, signals or lights to protect travelers from injuries from an excavation in the street, whether made by the city or by an individual,</p> <p>2. -Actual or Imputable Notice Necessary. A city is not an insurer of the safety of its streets, and if the streets become defective without its fault it is not responsible, unless it had actual or imputable notice and failed to use diligence in obviating and removing the danger.</p> <p>3.- Question for Jury. What time is sufficient to charge a city with knowledge of a dangerous defect in a street is ordinarily a question of fact for the determination of a jury.</p> <p>4'.-Facts Stated, and Notice Held a Question for Jury. An excavation was made on one of the most frequently traveled streets of a city by an abutting owner who was connecting his house with a water-pipe, and it remained open for two or three days. A traveler, who was passing along the street at night and about an hour after it became dark, drove into the unguarded excavation. No lights had been placed there on that night, although the excavation had been guarded by a light on previous nights. Held, that the question of whether the city had notice of the defect, or whether the defect had existed for such a length of time that notice should be imputed to it, was one for a jury to decide, under proper instructions from the court.</p>