Case Name: BAXTER C. RICH v. THE TOWN OF ASHEBORO
Court: Supreme Court of North Carolina
Jurisdiction: North Carolina
Decision Date: 1954-11-03
Citations: 241 N.C. 75
Docket Number: 
Parties: BAXTER C. RICH v. THE TOWN OF ASHEBORO.
Judges: 
Reporter: North Carolina Reports
Volume: 241
Pages: 75–76

Head Matter:
BAXTER C. RICH v. THE TOWN OF ASHEBORO.
(Filed 3 November, 1954.)
Municipal Corporations § 14a—
Nonsuit field properly entered in tbis action by plaintiff to recover for injuries resulting when he stepped from the paved sidewalk to an unpaved grass plot between the sidewalk and the street, and struck his foot against a rock protruding about two inches above the level of the unpaved grass plot.
Appeal by plaintiff from Rousseau, J., at March Civil Term 1954, of Eandolph.
Civil action to recover damages for personal injury sustained by plaintiff in the town of Asheboro on 11 May, 1951, allegedly the result of negligence of defendant, a municipal corporation, under these circumstances:
The scene of the injury, Church Street, runs north and south. It intersects with Hoover Street which runs east and west. There is a paved sidewalk approximately four and a half or five feet wide on west side of Church Street. Between this hard surface and the street there is an unpaved grass plot approximately two and a half feet wide.
When going south on the paved sidewalk on Church Street, approaching, and about twenty feet from Hoover Street, plaintiff, observing a man across the street whom he wanted to see, stepped down on to the said unpaved grass plot, and hit “his toe over a rock,” the color of the ground, and sticking “up about two inches high.”
Plaintiff testified: “I have probably known this place for 20 or 25 years. I never had seen the rock sticking out of the ground until I hit my foot on it ... I have been going along this particular road for 15 years. The same path that I take each time. I walk on the cement . . . I do not know whether the city knew there was a rock sticking up. As to why I didn’t go down the paved portion of this sidewalk and cross where it is marked and stay on the part that was paved, I wanted to see Mr. Brown over there . . .”
Motion for judgment as of nonsuit was granted at close of plaintiff’s evidence, and from judgment in accordance therewith, plaintiff appeals to the Supreme Court and assigns error.
Ottivay Burton for plaintiff, appellant.
Archie L. Smith for defendant, appellee.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
The ruling of the trial court upon the motion for non-suit finds support in the cases of Gettys v. Town of Marion, 218 N.C. 266, 10 S.E. 2d 799, and Waters v. Town of Belhaven, 222 N.C. 20, 21 S.E. 2d 840, under authority of which the judgment below is
Affirmed.