226 Pa. 408 | Pa. | 1910
Opinion by
On the evening of June 8, 1906, the appellant was sitting on a chair on the pavement in front of a building No. 602 Liberty avenue, Pittsburg. While sitting close to this building and near the adjoining one — No. 600 — an ornamental bracket from that building fell and struck him, and this suit is for the recovery of damages for the injuries sustained, due, as is alleged, to the failure of the appellee to ’have the bracket prop.erly and safely fastened to the building. The learned trial judge properly refused to sustain the contention that the fall of the bracket was in itself evidence of negligence.
There was no negligence in having the bracket for ornamental use on the front of the house, and its mere fall raised no presumption that it would not have fallen except for the negligence of the owner of the property in not having it safely attached to the building. The rule res ipsa loquitur is not in the case, and affirmative proof by the appellant of the appellee’s negligence was essential to a recovery. Such proof might have been submitted, but by the exclusion of the offers which are the subjects of the third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth
After having shown how the bracket had been attached, it would have been competent for the appellant, if able to do so, to submit proof that the way in which it had been attached and maintained was improper and unsafe, rendering it liable