James v. City of San Francisco

Citations

• 6 Cal. 528

Syllabus

<p>The obligation of a municipal corporation to keep the streets in repair, is necessarily suspended while they are actually undergoing such alterations as, for the time, made them dangerous.</p> <p>When the law compels the corporation to gire out a contract for grading a street to the lowest bidder, it takes away from the corporation the responsibility arising from the acts of the person taking the contract.</p> <p>It follows that where a party was injured by falling at night into an excavation made in grading the street of a city under such a contract, owing to the failure to put lights or guards about the place, the contractor, and not the city, is liable.</p>