91 Neb. 132 | Neb. | 1912
The plaintiff county recovered a judgment in the district court for Butler county upon an alleged claim for repairs of the bridge over the Platte river between the plaintiff county on the one side and the defendant county and Polk county on the other side, and the defendant has appealed to this court.
There has never been a contract between these two counties for the construction or repairs of this bridge. By sections 87-89, ch. 78, Comp. St. 1911, two counties may enter, into a contract to build a bridge over a stream which divides the counties, and where such contract exists, if either county, after reasonable notice, neglects or refuses to build the bridge, the other county may build the same and recover a portion of expenses from the county in default; and Avhere no contract exists betAveen the counties, if either of them refuses to enter into a contract to repair the bridge, the other county may enter into such contract “for all needful repairs” and recover a portion of the costs from- the other county. Under this provision the plaintiff county entered into a contract for work to put the bridge into condition for travel, and the defend
The question presented is whether this work was a pari; of a plan to build another and different bridge, or whether it was a needful repair of the existing structure. “Repair," as used in this statute, was defined in Brown County v. Keya Paha County, 88 Neb. 117: “The Avord ‘repair’ as applied to bridges in the road Iuavs means to restore to a sound or good state after decay, injury, dilapidation, or partial destruction.” And in Colfax County v. Butler County, 83 Neb. 803, it was held that “to build practically a new bridge” is not repairs. The evidence shows that the bridge in question was constructed 22 or 23 years before .this work was done, and was entirely of Avood and had needed repairs quite often. Mr. Smith, a member of the board of supervisors of the plaintiff county, testified that “the whole bridge was pretty much out of repair, *' * * the superstructure of the lower part of the bridge Avas badly rotted, and there was lots of caps, piling and timber of that kind that was rotten clear through,” and that, AArhile such a bridge would not be expected to be serviceable for more than about 20 years (one expert witness testified “in the neighborhood of 12 years”), a steel bridge ought to last from 50 to 75 years. Another Avitness testified: “The bridge was in pretty bad condition in 1909, and outside of this south turn-out it Avas rotten and in bad shape, and the board as a committee had the idea, even though the bridge was temporarily repaired, that it could not stand very long on account of being in such kind of condition. We built the steel spans so that part bf the bridge would stay, and in one sense avc knew from the condition of the other part of the bridge that it would
The judgment of the district court is reversed and the cause dismissed.
Reversed and dismissed.