82 W. Va. 458 | W. Va. | 1918
Plaintiff sued the City of Huntington to recover damages for a personal injury caused by being struck by a piece of timber falling from a building that was being erected on the property line on one of the public streets and breaking through a temporary eoAering, erected over the sidewalk for the protection of pedestrians, or by such timber falling out of said covering itself upon her.
A demurrer to the original declaration Avas overruled and the question of the sufficiency of the pleading Avas certified to this court for its opinion, and Ave then held that the declaration failed to aver negligence on the part of the city, and remanded with leave to plaintiff to amend. Johnson v. City of Huntington, 80 W. Va. 178, 92 S. E. 344, Plaintiff amended her declaration and the defendant again demurred to the amended declaration, and the court overruled the demurrer, and has certified to this court the question of the sufficiencj' of the amended declaration.
The laAv relating to the duties and liabilities of the city in the premises is so elaborately discussed in the former opinion that little needs now to be said. The former decision, in effect,
The declaration consists of two counts, in the first of which, after averring defendant’s duty in regard to keeping its streets and sidewalks in a reasonably safe condition for travel, plaintiff in effect avers, that the defendant attempted to perform its duty in this respect, and permitted and caused to be erected a scaffold or shed over the sidewalk of one of its public streets alongside of a building then being erected, for the purpose of protecting persons lawfully using the sidewalk “from the falling of planks, beams, timbers and other building materials into and upon the said sidewalk; ’ ’ that it negligently and carelessly permitted certain timbers and boards composing said scaffold or shed to project and hang over the sidewalk, which rendered it unsafe and wholly inadequate to protect persons thereon; that a “certain large beam, plank, or piece of timber * * * * fell, or was thrown from said building upon the roof of said scaffold,” and, by reason of its unskillful and unsafe construction, the said “beam, plank or timber, broke through said roof,” and fell a distance of twelve to twenty feet upon plaintiff and knocked her to the pavement, causing her - a severe shock and great injuries.
The second count is similar to the first, except that the negligence there averred is, that the city permitted the covering to be erected of “such weak, rotten and inadequate materials as to be unsafe in itself,” * * * * and that a “certain large beam, plank or piece of timber * * * * fell from or out of such scaffold, shed or structure,” and struck and injured the plaintiff.
Either count sufficiently avers actionable negligence on the part of the city. In view of the law imposing upon it the absolute duty to maintain its streets and sidewalks in a reasonably safe condition for travel, either count avers, with sufficient particularity, omissions of duty constituting actionable
Judgment affirmed, and cause remanded.