Shaffer v. Harmony Borough

Citations

• 204 Pa. 339
• 54 A. 168
• 1903 Pa. LEXIS 803

Syllabus

<p>Negligence —Boroughs—Defective sidetvalks—Gontribuiory negligence— Province of court and jury.</p> <p>In an action by a woman against a borough to recover damages for personal injuries suffered by reason of a defective sidewalk, it appeared that at the point where the accident occurred there was a sidewalk on but one side of the street. This walk was made partly of planks and partly of broken stones and cinders. At a place where a driveway leading to a vacant lot crossed the walk, old railroad ties were laid side by side lengthways of the pavement, and covered with fine furnace slag. For two years this part of the walk had been in a dangerous condition because of the holes in the ties caused by the decay. Of this condition the borough authorities had express notice long before the accident. Plaintiff knew that there were holes in the ties, and to avoid them she stepped on a tie, some distance from a hole, which appeared to her to be perfectly sound and safe. This tie had decayed from the bottom or inside, and the heel of her shoe broke through the crust on the upper surface, and she fell and was severely injured. Held, that the question of plaintiff’s contributory negligence was for the jury, and that a verdict and judgment for plaintiff should be sustained.</p>