Lindberg v. Mifflin Township

Citations

• 247 Pa. 464
• 93 A. 616
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 866

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Road law — Townships—Embankment beside road— Absence of barrier — Stumbling horse — Fall over embankment— Contract with boulevard company — Liability to repair — Primary liability.</p> <p>1. Those in control of public roads are charged with the duty of taking reasonable ■ care to erect proper barriers at dangerous places to guard against injuries which may arise from the well-known habits of horses.</p> <p>2. The fact that the supervisors of a township have authorized a boulevard company to use a township road as part of its boulevard does not relieve the township from its primary liability to keep the road in ¡a reasonably safe condition for public travel.</p> <p>3. In an action against a township to recover damages for personal injuries, the case is for the jury and a verdict for the plaintiff will be sustained where it appears that while plaintiff was driving a team along a road in the defendant township one of the horses stumbled and pulled its mate and the wagon over an unguarded and steep embankment directly on the side of the road, precipitating the plaintiff thereover; that the bed of the highway was occupied by two street car tracks, leaving but three or four inches between the outside rail and the edge of the road; that plaintiff was driving slowly down grade with a good hold on the lines and his foot on the brake; that the horse was gentle and not in the habit of stumbling; that the driver was on the proper side of the road according to the direction in which he was going, and testified that he considered it unsafe at that particular place to drive on the other side owing to the fact that at any time a car was liable to come down toward him on that track around a sharp curve seventy feet beyond the point of the accident; that the exact cause for the stumble of the horse did not appear other than that there was some break or unevenness in the surface of the road.</p>