Case ID: mich_136/html/0621-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Grant, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

HANNON v. CITY OF GLADSTONE.
    Municipal Corporations — Sidewalks—Failure to Erect Railings — Negligence—Question for Jury.
    Under 1 Comp. Laws, § 3443, requiring cities to keep their sidewalks reasonably safe and convenient for public travel, the question of the negligence of a city in failing to erect railings along a sidewalk, constructed over a low place some distance above the ground, is for the jury.
    Error to Delta; Stone, J.
    Submitted April 13, 1904.
    (Docket No. 57.)
    Decided May 31, 1904.
    Case by Mary Hannon against the city of Gladstone for personal injuries caused by a defective sidewalk. Prom a judgment for plaintiff, defendant brings error.
    Affirmed.
    
      G. P. JEmpson, for appellant.
    
      James H. Clancy, for appellee.
   Grant, J.

The defendant city constructed a sidewalk of plank, 6 feet wide, and for some distance over a low place it stood 21 inches above the ground. Plaintiff, 53 years of age, was traveling on this sidewalk at 9 o’clock on a dark and rainy night. The streets of the city were supplied with electric lights, which cast more or less light upon the walk. The plaintiff testified that it was so dark she could not see the plank, and for that reason stepped off. There was testimony on the part of the defendant that others saw her on the walk and saw her fall when 190 feet distant. The sole negligence alleged is in the failure to erect a railing along the sides of the walk. The walk otherwise was good. The court left it to the jury to determine whether the failure to erect railings under all the circumstances was negligence. The plaintiff recovered verdict and judgment.

The defendant contends that the statute does not impose the duty to erect railings at such places. The question is not a new one in this State. We think the case is ruled by Malloy v. Township of Walker, 77 Mich. 448 (43 N. W. 1013, 6 L. R. A. 695). That case was approved in Beall v. Township of Athens, 81 Mich. 536 (45 N. W. 1014); Gage v. Railroad Co., 105 Mich. 335 (63 N. W. 318); Ross v. Township of Ionia, 104 Mich. 330 (63 N. W. 401); Shaw v. Township of Saline, 113 Mich. 343 (71 N. W. 643). The same principle applies to sidewalks as to the roadbed designed for the passage of vehicles.

Judgment affirmed.

Moore, C. J., Carpenter and Hooker, JJ., concurred. Montgomery, J., took no part in the decision.