Volk v. Springhouse & Hilltown Turnpike Road Co.

Citations

• 66 Pa. Super. 493
• 1917 Pa. Super. LEXIS 303

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Turnpike companies — Automobiles—Hole in road.</p> <p>A turnpike company is not an insurer of the safety of every person who travels over its road, and it is not liable merely because an accident happens by reason of some defect in the road. When charged in an action at law with liability for an injury received by one in traveling over the highway, it is under the same rules of evidence as any other corporation or individual that is charged with liability for an injury, that is, the plaintiff must prove negligence in the offending party to establish his case.</p> <p>The duty of a turnpike company to keep its road in a travelable condition is higher than that exacted from municipal authorities. The obligation resting on municipal authorities is to keep the road reasonably safe for public travel. Turnpike companies are bound to keep their roads in repair and safe condition, inasmuch as the payment of tolls is a consideration for the undertaking on the part of the corporation to furnish a safe road for the use of the traveler.</p> <p>In an action against a turnpike company to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by a heavy woman being thrown from the rear seat of a small automobile, when the machine struck a hole in the defendant’s road, the case is for the jury and a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff will be sustained, where it appears that the hole had been in the road for a time sufficient to charge the defendant with constructive notice, that the automobile, the ownership of which was not disclosed, was driven by plaintiff’s son seventeen years of age, a registered and competent driver, and that the machine was going at the rate of fifteen miles an hour.</p> <p>In such a case the court could not say as a matter of law that negligence of the driver, if any, was imputable to the mother; nor could it say that the plaintiff in riding in the rumble seat of the ear at the time, was negligent.</p>