Knight v. Farmington Township

Citations

• 72 Pa. Super. 156
• 1919 Pa. Super. LEXIS 271

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Defective highway — Latent defect — Townships — Notice.</p> <p>1. A township is not an insurer against all defects, latent as well as patent, in its structures on highways, but is liable for negligence. Where the defect in a lawful structure is latent, either express notice of it must be brought home to the municipality, or the defect must be of such a character that the municipality will be charged with constructive notice.</p> <p>2. In an action for damages for injuries to a horse occasioned by the eave-in of the surface of a country road, the plaintiff is not entitled to recover, where it appears that prior to the accident, there was no visible evidence of the latent defect in the roadway, and that it could not have been discovered without tearing up the roadbed.</p> <p>3. To charge the township with constructive notice of such defect, it must be apparent by reasonable inspection, and evidence that two days prior to the accident, another traveler had broken through the roadway, is not sufficient to establish the liability of the township.</p>