79 Iowa 487 | Iowa | 1890
The petition alleges that defendant erected a bridge over the Nishnabotna river, having an approach of earth and stone, of the height of thirty feet, which was by defendant negligently constructed,
II. The questions in the case arise upon objections to the third instruction given by the court to the jury. This instruction presents fully the facts of the case to which the rules it announces that are objected to by defendant are applicable. It is necessary to set it out in full to expose the error which we find in i t.
“3. The statutes of our state impose upon the counties therein the duty, through its board of supervisors, of erecting, maintaining and keeping in reasonably safe condition for travel all bridges, when large enough to be called ‘county bridges,’ within the county, and their obligation extends not only to the bridges proper, but also to the abutments and approaches which make the bridge accessible; and, it being conceded that the bridge in question is a county bridge, the first question of fact, then, to be determined by you, is, was the place where the accident- occurred an approach to said bridge % A bridge would be useless as a passage-way for horses and vehicles over a stream unless it be provided, when necessary, at each end, with approaches and abutments necessary to make the bridge accessible on account of the height of the bridge, or for any other reason, and the county undertakes to provide them. The same obligation rests upon it to make them reasonably safe to travel over and along as rests upon it to
III. An objection urged by defendant’s counsel to this instruction is that it in effect directs the jury that the bank of the river after the construction of the wall was an approach to the bridge, and a part of it. Under the rules recognized by this court, the jury were charged with the duty of determining whether the locus of the accident was upon an approach constituting a part of the bridge. Whether the approach be or be not a part or the bridge is not a question of law, for the court, but of fact, for the jury. Moreland v. Mitchell County, 40 Iowa, 394; Nims v. Boone County, 66 Iowa, 272; 68 Iowa, 642. The third paragraph of the instruction plainly directs the jury to find whether the locus of the accident was or was not upon the approach to the bridge, but it nowhere directs the jury to find whether the approach constituted a part of the bridge. It is very plain that one approach may not constitute a part of the bridge, while another approach is to be regarded as a part of the structure. An approach having the character of a highway, rather than of a structure to aid approach to the bridge, cannot be regarded as a part of