Plaintiff’s action was instituted to recover damages for injuries received from a fall on one of defendant’s sidewаlks. He recovered judgment in the circuit court.
The statute (Section 8863, Revised Statutes 1909) requires that in order to maintain аn action against a city for personal injuries, the complaining party must give a verified written notice to the Mayor of the city within sixty days of the occurrence for which damages are claimed “stating the place wherе, the time when such injury was received, and the character and circumstances of the injury.”
“You are hereby notified and informed that the undersigned John E. Krucker, was injured on the 5th day of January, 1915, by slipping on the ice on the sidewаlk on the west side of Twenty-Fourth street between Jackson street and Yories street about 6:30 a. m. Said injury consists of a brоken fibula and lacerations and ruptures of the ligaments and muscles in and about the ankle. You are further informed that the undersigned will claim damages on account of the said injury from the city of St. Joseph.” '
John E. Krucker.
The courts of this, and other Stаtes, have rigidly enforced the statute requiring this notice within the time limited; though they have held that a reasonable compliance, with reference to the contents of the notice, considering the object of the law, is all that is necessary.
The object of the statute is to afford the city a designation of the place, so that it may еxamine it and become informed as to the legality and good faith of the claimant’s demand, and of the extent of its own liability. It will be observed that the above notice fixes the place as on the sidewalk on the.west side of Twеnty-Fourth street, between Jackson and Yories streets. ’ It is not to be denied that ice on sidewalks is an inevitable condition at times during the winter season in this climate. When this condition is general over the city there is no help for it, nor liability bеcause of it. But if it is exceptional and is allowed to become hazardous from other causes than its natural formation, the case is different. If, for instance, it is allowed to form in ridges, or separate raised or uneven surfaces, so as to endanger pedestrians there is liability.
So, therefore, when plaintiff stated to the Mayor that the place of his injury was on ice on the sidewalk on the west side of Twenty-Fourth street between Jackson and Yoriеs, and nothing more, he gave little, or no opportunity for the city to ascertain whether it was at
Nаming the place as between two streets over four hundred feet apart would not be fatal looseness оf description, if plaintiff had stated something more which would have served as a guide to the city when it came to еxamine. The notice shows on its face that it was given fifty-nine days after the occurrence, when all evidence of ice or snow had disappeared. Now suppose that the notice had stated some point at, or near which, th injury occurred, not necessarily by feet and inches, but with reasonable accuracy; the city, it may be, could have learned the walk was not in the condition asserted and that there was no liability.
Plaintiff has cited us to many cases where the place stated in the notice was- on the sidewalk between two streets; but in most of thesе, there was something else which had the effect to locate the place and afford the city something dеfinite enough to be a guide to investigation. Thus, in City of Lincoln v. O’Brien,
The cases in the courts of appeals in this State have followed Reno v. City of St. Joseph,
None of the cases cited by plaintiff from the courts of this State meet the defective character of notice given in this one. The judgment must be reversed.