Case Name: Herman Markowitz, as Administrator, etc., Resp't, v. Dry Dock, East Broadway and Battery Railroad Company, App'lt
Court: New York Court of Common Pleas
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1895-01
Citations: 67 N.Y. St. Rep. 572
Docket Number: 
Parties: Herman Markowitz, as Administrator, etc., Resp’t, v. Dry Dock, East Broadway and Battery Railroad Company, App’lt.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York State Reporter
Volume: 67
Pages: 572–577

Head Matter:
Herman Markowitz, as Administrator, etc., Resp’t, v. Dry Dock, East Broadway and Battery Railroad Company, App’lt.
(New York Common Pleas, General Term,
Filed January, 1895.)
1. Evidence — Negligence.
In an action for personal injuries, subsequent changes in the place or cause of the accident are inadmissible.
3. Same — Proof of age.
The certificate of a coroner, made in compliance with section 604 of the Consolidation Act, is admissible as evidence of the decedent’s age, under section 631 of act.
Appeal from a judgment entered on a verdict in favor of plaintiff, and from an order denying a motion for new trial.
John M. Scribner, for app’lt; Aaron Kahn, for resp’t.

Opinion:
GIEGERICH, J.
The supplemental complaint, among other things, alleges that the tracks of the defendant, among other places, extended and ran over and along Grand street, between Goerck and Mangin streets, in the city of New York ; that it was the duty of the defendant to keep that part of said street adjacent to and along which said track ran and extended free from ice, snow, and accumulations and obstructions of every kind and n& turc; ' that on or about January 25,1891, and for some time previous thereto, the defendant unlawfully, wrongfully, negligently, and carelessly placed, put, and accumulated snow, ice, and mud along and near said track in said Grand street, opposite Goerck street, and unlawfully, wrongfully, and carelessly permitted the same to remain there until said accumulations had formed and been frozen into ice banks, so much so that the same formed an obstruction to the public in lawfully traveling across said street that on said day one Henry Friedman was carefully traveling across said street opposite said Goerck street, and, in order to do so, he was necessarily compelled to cross and pass over said track of the defendant and said bank of snow, ice, and mud, and while so crossing the said track along said public highway, and as he reached said track, a car of the defendant rapidly approached the place where said Henry Friedman was passing, and, in consequence of the negligence of the driver thereof, threw him down on the ground, and passed over his right leg, and he was, thereby so injured as to cause his death. The supplemental complaint also alleges the appointment of Wilhelmina Friedman as administratrix of the goods, chattels, and credits of her deceased husband ; her death, and the appointment of the plaintiff as administrator de ionis non of said Henry Friedman, deceased; and his substitution as plaintiff in the place and stead of said Wilhelmina Friedman, deceased. The answer contains a specific denial of each allegation of the supplemental complaint, except the incorporation of the defendant, which is admitted. The testimony adduced on the part of the plaintiff tended to show that the defendant helped to create the snowbank which prevented the escape of plaintiff's intestate from the rapidly approaching car, which ran him down. Markowitz, the plaintiff, testified that he saw a snow plow or sweeper of the defendant, with its own name thereon, sweeping up the snow upon the said bank, which in a few days became frozen to ice. This was disputed by defendant's witnesses, who claimed that plaintiff was mistaken in reference to the snowplow he saw ; and, according to the testimony of the witness called by the defendant, said snowbank was not created by the snowplow of the defendant or any other company, but was composed of snow removed by citizens from the sidewalk and the back yards of adjacent premises, and by them deposited in "the street, after the railroad companies had removed and carted away all snow from the place where the accident happened. In rebuttal, the plaintiff was recalled, and, against the defendant's repeated objections and exceptions, testified to the removal of said snowbank by the defendants on the day after the accident. The appellant insists that error is predicable of the admission of this evidence.
The ruling of this court in Brennan v. Lachat, 14 Daly, 197 ; 6 St. Rep. 278, that evidence of repairs immediately after the accident was admissible as showing some evidence of their being needed, has been overruled by the subsequent decisions of the court of appeals in Corcoran v. Peekskill, 108 N. Y. 153; 13 St. Rep. 105, and in the still later case of Clapper v. Town of Waterford, 131 N. Y. 382 ; 43 St. Rep. 316. These cases hold that the question whether the defendant was negligent must be decided upon the facts as they existed at the time of the injury, irrespective of facts occurring subsequent thereto. But to this rule there is an exception, distinctly recognized by the court in the last cited case; and that is, where there is a dispute as to the defendants control or authority over the place where the accident happened,the latter's acts after the accident may be admitted, not as bearing upon the issue of negligence, but for the purpose of showing the exercise of authority or control over such place. Sewell v. City of Cohoes, 75 N. Y. 45, 54; Morrell v. Peck, 88 id. 399. One of the issues presented by the pleadings is whether the defendant erected said snowbank, and permitted the same to remain for such an unreasonable length of time that it became an obstruction in the street; and hence the testimony-of the plaintiff as to the removal of the snowbank by the defendant after the accident was relevant. It may be argued that the testimony so admitted should have been expressly limited in its application to the question of control or dominion of the snowbank by the defendant. As it was relevant to an issue in the case, such evidence could not have been excluded, Platner v. Platner, 78 N. Y. 95 ; Hagarty v. Andrews, 94 id. 195; 1 Rice, Ev. p. 499, § 252; but, if its express restriction to such issue was deemed desirable by the defendant, a request to-that effect should have been made at the trial. The record, however, fails- to show such a request; and therefore the defendant's rights, if any, have in this respect been waived.
It is insisted that it was not the duty'of this railway company to remove.said snowbank; but as the jury, by its verdict, has found that such bank was placed in the locality noted and allowed to remain there for an unreasonable length of time by the defendant company, it should be held liable for the consequence of its maintenance of a public nuisance, Davis v. Mayor, 14 N. Y. 506, 524; Lamming v. Galusha, 135 id. 239, 242; 47 St. Rep. 831; and therefore it cannot claim exemption from liability because that duty may also have devolved upon others. Dixon v. Railroad Co., 100 N. Y. 170, 178. Hence the defendant's exception taken to the ruling of the learned trial judge in excluding from the evidence chapter 677 of the Laws of 1872 and chapter 335 of the Laws of 1873 appears to me to be without merit.
There was a conflict upon the trial as to the age of plaintiff's intestate when he received the injuries which resulted in his death four days later. Plaintiff's counsel told the jury, in his opening, that the deceased was about fifty-five to sixty years of age. The plaintiff testified that he was sixty-seven years old, but. the defendant's testimony, on the. other hand, showed him to be seventy-six years of age. Defendant's counsel offered in evidence a copy of or transcript from the certificate or record of death filed with the health department of the city of New York by the coroner who held the inquest upon the body of plaintiff's intestate, containing the particulars called for and required by section 604 of the consolidation act (chapter 410, Laws 1882), said copy or transcript being authenticated in conformity with section 621 of the said act, and from which it appears that intestate was, at the time of his death of the age of seventy-six years, eight months, and eighteen days. This was objected to as incompetent, inadmissible, and hearsay. The court excluded the paper -writing, to which ruling the defendant's gounsel excepted. Plaintiff's counsel stated that the objection went solely to the statement of age contained in the certificate; but, as the defendant's counsel insisted upon offering it " as evidence of everything contained' in it," the court was obliged to rule upon the whole offer, and in so ruling sustained the objection.
Section 604 of the consolidation act requires coroners of the city of New York who have held an inquest to file with the health department a certificate specifying, " as near as the same can be ascertained, the name and surname, age, occupation, term of residence in said city, place of nativity, condition in life, whether single, married, widow, or widower, color, last place of residence, and the direct or indirect cause of death of such person.
Section 621 of the same act prescribes:
' All courts shall take judicial notice of the seal of said board and of the signature of its secretary and chief clerk. Copies of the record of the proceedings of said board (health department) and books, and papers constituting part of its archives, when authenticated by its secretary, or secretary pro tempore, shall be presumptively correct in any court of justice, or judicial proceeding, when they may be relevant to the point or matter in controversy, of the facts, statements, and recitals therein contained."
In Woolsey v. Trustees, 84 Hun, 236 ; 65 St. Rep. 743, 746, the court in passing upon a similar statutory provision, said :
" While it is quite apparent that the primary object of the legislature in enacting these provisions of law was to furnish information upon the subject of vital statistics for sanitary purposes, yet it is manifest that the language employed is broad enough to make these certificates such as the act expressly declares, shall be admit-_ ted in all the courts of this state as prima jacie evidence of the facts therein set forth.' Under such circumstances, we think the certificates were competent evidence."
The case of Buffalo Loan, Trust & Safe Deposit Co. v. Knights Templar & Masonic Mut. Aid Ass'n, 126 N. Y. 450; 38 St. Rep, 247, cited by respondent's counsel, is clearly distinguishable from the one at bar, in that the statute under which the physician's certificate was filed (title 12, chap. 519, Laws 1870, as amended by subdivision 5, § 10, tit. 12, chap. 181, p. 335, Laws 1885) contains no provision whatsoever for making such certificate evidence of the facts therein set forth ; but in the present case ample provision therefor has been made by the legislature, which, as may be pointed out in passing, has at all times authority to make, modify, and control the rules of evidence. Howard v. Moot, 64 N. Y. 262 ; People v. Cannon, 139 N. Y. 32 ; 54 St. Rep. 431. There is still sa further and an important distinction to be drawn between said case and the present one. In the former the certificate was made by one who was not a public officer; while in this it was made by a judicial officer (see 1 Rev. St. [Banks Bros.' 8th ed.] pt. 1, p. 390, chap. 5, tit. 4 art. 4, § 49), whose duty it was to inquire into and ascertain the matters set forth in his certificate. Consequently, the same should, for all purposes of the case, be viewed as a public document. Rice, Ev. pp. 186, 187, § 126. For reasons similar to those last stated, in the case of McKinley v. Insurance Co., 6 Misc. Rep. 9; 58 St. Rep. 122, is also distinguishable from the present one. It is manifest that the attention of the court was not called in that case to the consideration adverted to, and therefore the decsion rendered is not supported by the case of Buffalo Loan, Trust & Safe Deposit Co. v. Knights Templar & Masonic Mut. Aid Ass'n, supra, cited as sanctioning it. I have examined the other cases cited by respondent's counsel, but find that they are not in point.
It follows from these views that the exclusion of the paper writing in question was error, which to me appears to be so radical as of itself to necessitate a reversal of the judgment, and therefore it is not essential that we specifically consider other points urged by the appellant upon this appeal. The judgment should therefore be reversed, and a new trial ordered, with costs to abide the event.