Rachmel v. Clark

Citations

• 205 Pa. 314
• 54 A. 1027
• 1903 Pa. LEXIS 569

Syllabus

<p>Practice, C. P. — Trial—Evidence.</p> <p>On the trial of an accident case it is not good practice to permit witnesses to give distances and to indicate the position of a person by reference to objects in the court room, without anything going on the record as to distances and positions to aid the appellate court in reviewing the case.</p> <p>Negligence — Use of sidewalk — Obstruction of pavement — Nuisance—Child of tender years.</p> <p>Abutting owners have no right to use the pavements of a city street as a storage ground. The streets of a city are for the purpose of transit and except for temporary use it is illegal to obstruct them.</p> <p>Children wherever they go must be expected to act upon childish instincts and impulses; others who are chargeable with a duty of care and caution toward them must calculate upon this, and take precautions accordingly. If they leave exposed to the observation of children anything which would be tempting to them, and which they, in their immature judgment, might naturally suppose they were at liberty to handle or play with, they should expect that liberty to be taken.</p> <p>Where the owner of a slate factory permits slabs of slate to remain for a long time on the pavement leaning against the factory, and a boy seven years old climbs up alongside of and leans against a slab which topples over and injures him, the owner of the factory is liable for the injuries sustained by the boy; and this is the case even if the slab stood within the building line, and whether the space between the building line and the street line was or was not paved.</p>