69 A.2d 93 | Pa. | 1949
The defendant, City of Pittsburgh, appeals from judgments on verdicts for husband and wife in their suit for damages for injury sustained by the wife in falling on an icy sidewalk. The city's principal contention is that the court erred in refusing its motions for judgments n. o. v.
While walking on the sidewalk in front of premises 1811 Rhine Street, about nine o'clock on the evening of November 16, 1940, during a "light" snow the wife plaintiff slipped* on ice concealed by the falling snow *367
and sustained injury. The ice was caused by the freezing of water allowed to flow over the cement surface of the sidewalk from a down-spout intended to carry off the water collected from the roof of the house. There was evidence to support a finding that for the four years preceding the accident, this surface water froze during freezing weather and constituted a nuisance menacing the safety of pedestrians. Such a history would support a finding of constructive if not actual notice to the city. While the primary obligation is on the property owner the city has a secondary obligation: Beebe et al. v. Phila.,
The city contends that as the evidence does not show how long the ice had been on the sidewalk immediately prior to plaintiff's fall, she has not sustained the burden of proof of notice to the city. But, having offered ample evidence to support the finding of a nuisance of long standing and negligence in not causing it to be abated, it was not necessary to show how long the particular bit of ice had remained on the sidewalk before it threw the plaintiff; it was sufficient to show the conditions, and the city's knowledge of them, which in freezing weather, would make the condition of the sidewalk dangerous to a pedestrian lawfully using it; the evidence was sufficient to go to the jury on that point. Nuisance and negligence may be and frequently are closely related, the former pre-supposing the latter *368
when the omission to remove the nuisance after notice constitutes negligence. The general subject is considered inWard v. Pittsburgh et al.,
Judgments affirmed.