Swords v. West Brownsville Borough

Citations

• 233 Pa. 533
• 82 A. 780
• 1912 Pa. LEXIS 864

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Municipality—Borough street — Area way — Contributory negligence.</p> <p>In an action for damages against a municipality for an injury alleged to have been caused by a defect in a highway a verdict is properly directed for the defendant where it appears that the plaintiff, while behaving in a disorderly manner on a borough street, fell into an area way that was on private property,-twenty-one inches from the-side of the street and separated from it by a stone wall eighteen inches in width and four inches high; that he lived in the vicinity and knew the area way; that he had lingered for some time around the hotel that it adjoined and had been scuffling in the barroom; that after leaving the hotel he engaged- in a -scuffle with a young man on the street corner, and while so engaged he moved with him from the front to the side of-the hotel, where, while stepping backwards or sideways, his foot struck the coping of the wall, causing his fall.</p>