Case ID: ill-app_194/html/0614-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Presiding Justice Gridley", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Frances Miklaszewski, Appellee, v. City of Chicago, Appellant,
    Gen. No. 20,853.
    (Mot to he reported in full.)
    Appeal from the Superior Court of Cook county; the Hon. Marcus A. Kavakagh, Judge, presiding.
    Heard in the Branch Appellate Court at the October term, 1914.
    Reversed with finding of fact.
    Opinion filed October 5, 1915.
    Rehearing denied October 15, 1915.
    Abstract of the Decision.
    Municipal corporations, § 1013
      
      —when city not liable for injury by ice on sidewalk. In. an action against a city to recover for personal injuries caused hy a fall on a slippery sidewalk, where it appeared that the snow and ice causing the conditions complained of were not such as to amount to an obstruction, held error to deny defendant’s motion for a peremptory instruction in its favor, although it appeared that the condition of the sidewalk which caused the accident was due to the act of the servants of defendant in piling snow upon a vacant lot adjacent to the part of the sidewalk where the accident occurred, from which, after the snow melted, water ran on the sidewalk and by freezing caused such conditions, for the reason that such conditions do not constitute a defect in the sidewalk which renders the city liable to plaintiff for the accident sued for.
    
      Statement of the Case.
    Action by Frances Miklaszewski, plaintiff, against the City of Chicago, defendant, in the Superior Court of Cook county, to recover for personal injuries, the result of falling on a slippery sidewalk. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals.
    It appeared that the condition of the sidewalk in question at the time of the accident was due to the act of the servants of defendant in piling snow upon a vacant lot adjacent to that part of the sidewalk where the accident occurred, which later melted, letting the water run on that part of the sidewalk and freeze there. It further appeared that at the time of the accident there was a thin coating of snow above the ice on the sidewalk.
    John W. Beckwith and N. L. Piotrowski, for appellant; David R. Levy, of counsel.
    Gorman, Pollock, Sullivan & Livingston, for appellee.
    
      
      See Illinois Notes Digest, Vols. XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, same topic and section number.
    
   Mr. Presiding Justice Gridley

delivered the opinion of the court.