100 Me. 440 | Me. | 1905
On January 25, 1904, plaintiff slipped upon the ioe on. the sidewalk in front of the northeasterly corner of defendant’s house on State Street, in Portland, and fell and received injury. She claims that the defendant wrongfully conducted water upon the sidewalk, which froze and rendered the walk dangerous. Hence this suit. Plaintiff had a verdict, and the case is here on exceptions and motion to set aside the verdict.
Defendant’s house is on the southerly side of the street, the front facing the northeast. The ground has a rise from the sidewalk to the rear line of the house of three feet and one-half inch, and the flow of surface water from defendant’s premises is toward the sidewalk and street. The water from the roof of the main house is conducted into the sewer, and does not reach the sidewalk. The house has a bay window, four feet and four-tenths one way and twelve feet and six-tenths the other way. The roof of the bay window pitches each way, half the drainage going south and half north. At'either end of the bay window roof is a conductor, with a one inch opening. It is only the northerly half of the bay window roof that by any possibility could discharge water to reach the sidewalk, at the place of injury.
From the front of the bay window to the granite curbing next to the sidewalk is seven feet and seven inches. On the north end of the house a driveway led from the street to the stable in the rear. From the stable to the street the ground descended. The water from the northerly end of the bay window was conducted through an elbow or offset from the bay window to a perpendicular conductor, which terminated in a wooden spout, having its outlet on the private walk from the sidewalk by the north end of the house to its rear. This elbow or set off in the fall of 1903 had rusted out at the bottom, so that the water fell upon the grass plot at the side of the house, and would not flow into the conductor. This condition
The jury apparently drew an inference not warranted by the evidence. It is also quite apparent that the plaintiff was not in the exercise of due care.
' Motion sustained'; verdict set aside.