144 Mich. 549 | Mich. | 1906
Plaintiff brought this action to recover for injuries received by falling into an open area opening upon a platform in an alleyway adjoining defendants’ premises in the village of Ithaca. The circuit judge directed a verdict for defendant, and plaintiff brings error.
The appended map will be an aid to an understanding of the situation. An alleyway extends from the westerly ■side of defendants’ store building 32 feet west. This .alleyway has been used by the general public at will for
On the night in question, there was at least one tier of salt barrels upon the platform in question, lying endways to the building. On the evening in question plaintiff visited three saloons, and finally went to Knickerbocker’s saloon, conducted in the third building east of the premises of defendants. Plaintiff was in that saloon when it was announced that it was time to close, and had ample opportunity to go out the front door if he had so desired. The only reason which he gives for not going out the front door at that time is that “I was willing to stay awhile longer with my friends.” Plaintiff further testified that when he got ready to go home he did not ask the proprietor to go out the front door; that the reason he didn’t was because Bodet, one of his companions, said he knew the way around the back way, and plaintiff thought he did; that plaintiff did not know anything about the back way himself at all, but went out the back way because Bodet said he knew the way. Thereupon plaintiff and three of his companions left the saloon through the back door, and went north across the rear of the premises of these defendants, and towards the alley in question. The
Plaintiff further testifies:
“ Q. Was there anything between where you were and the roadbed to prevent your going out there to walk in the roadbed ?
“A. I did not see anything.
“ Q. You could have stepped off from the platform and walked on in the middle of the roadbed, and gone out straight that way, could you not ?
“ A. I could if I so chose.
“ Q. You didn’t choose to do it ?
“ A. No, sir. They told me to go on the sidewalk.
“Q. After that, after you got on the sidewalk, and had run against the salt barrel or box with your cane, at that time you could have gone out in the middle of the roadbed, if you wanted to ?
“A. Yes, sir.”
Plaintiff further testified that he could see the ground, next to the platform; that it was a foot or so below
In determining the rights of the parties it is necessary •to inquire somewhat as to the rights of the defendants to erect the platform in question, to he used in connection with their building. It has been frequently stated in this State that an alley is not a highway in the proper sense of the term. Paul v. City of Detroit, 32 Mich. 108; Bagley v. People, 43 Mich. 355; Horton v. Williams, 99 Mich. 423. Such alleyway is intended for the convenience of adjacent property, and not for general travel or passage like streets. Paul v. City of Detroit, supra.. Accordingly it was held in Bagley v. People, supra, that an obstruction to the right of passage through or to the proper use of an alley by those entitled thereto cannot be considered a public wrong. If this be the true rule, and it be held that the public generally cannot have an interest in preventing an obstruction, it would seem to follow that the plaintiff, as a member of the public, cannot assert any greater rights in the alley as a thoroughfare. In the case last cited it was intimated that the construction of a platform to be used in connection with adjacent property might, in some circumstances, be a proper use of an alley. However this may be, the fact appears that this space was devoted to that use, and so far as appears without objection from those beneficially interested in this alley or from the public at large. This did not, under the facts in this case, enlarge the uses of this alleyway, but, on the contrary, restricted such uses by devoting this platform to use as a freight platform and for storage of bulky articles of merchandise.
The judgment is affirmed.