Case Name: Hugo Schuster, an Infant, by Johanna Schuster, His Guardian ad Litem, Respondent, v. Forty-second Street, Manhattanville and St. Nicholas Avenue Railway Company, Appellant (Originally Impleaded with The City of New York)
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1907-03-08
Citations: 118 A.D. 197
Docket Number: 
Parties: Hugo Schuster, an Infant, by Johanna Schuster, His Guardian ad Litem, Respondent, v. Forty-second Street, Manhattanville and St. Nicholas Avenue Railway Company, Appellant (Originally Impleaded with The City of New York).
Judges: 
Reporter: Appellate Division Reports
Volume: 118
Pages: 197–204

Head Matter:
Hugo Schuster, an Infant, by Johanna Schuster, His Guardian ad Litem, Respondent, v. Forty-second Street, Manhattanville and St. Nicholas Avenue Railway Company, Appellant (Originally Impleaded with The City of New York).
First Department,
March 8, 1907.
Negligence — failure of railroad, to repair pavement adjoining tracks — when liable for injuries caused thereby.
A railroad is liable for injuries received by reason of its failure to repair the pavement between its tracks and for two feet in width outside its tracks as required by section 98 of the General Railroad Law, irrespective of whether any request or demand for such repair has been made by the local authorities. Ingraham and McLaughlin, JJ., dissented, with opinion.
Appeal by the defendant, the Forty-second Street, Manhattan-ville and St. Nicholas Avenue Railway Company, from a judgment of the Supreme Court iq favor of the plaintiff, entered in the office of the clerk of the county of New .York on the 31st day of May, 1906, upon the verdict of a jury for $2,500, and also from an order entered in said clerk’s office on the 27th day of May, 1906, denying the defendant’s motion for a new trial made upon the minutes.
Charles F. Brown, for the appellant.
F. Lothard McClure, for the respondent.

Opinion:
Scott, J.:
The only question necessary to be considered on this appeal is whether or not section 98 of the Railroad Law imposes a duty upon a street surface railroad company to keep in permanent repair the pavement between its tracks and two feet in width outside its tracks, irrespective of any request or demand on the part of the local authorities. The defendant's position is that no such duty is imposed unless and until the company is required by the local authorities to make repairs. The contrary appears to have been held in Conway v. City of Rochester (157 N. Y. 38) and Doyle v. City of New York (58 App. Div. 588). Upon the authority of these cases the judgment should be affirmed, with costs.
i
Patterson, P. J., and Clarke, J., concurred; Ingraham and McLaughlin, JJ., dissented.
Laws of 1890, chap. 565, as amd. by Laws of 1892, chap. 676.— [Rep.