60 Pa. Super. 256 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1915
Opinion by
The questions involved in this case were properly submitted to the jury by the learned trial judge in a fair and adequate charge and the verdict for the plaintiff should not be disturbed.
The accident which is the basis of plaintiff’s claim occurred at half.past eleven o’clock in the evening of a dark night as plaintiff was returning home from the theater. When she came to the driveway which crossed the pavement and afforded access to a garage, she fell into the depression caused by the difference in the levels of the pavement and driveway, a difference in grade of three or four inches. It was very dark at the location at which the accident occurred. There was a street lamp burning dimly some distance away, but- a trolley pole cast a shadow on the place. Plaintiff had resided in the city about two weeks, and had never used the pavement immediately in front of the garage but had used the pavement on the opposite side of the street two or three times. There was no ordinance regulating the construction of such driveways. An ordinance prescribed the grades of pavements and the descent of the same from the property line to the curb, but made no reference to driveways in this regard.
Under these circumstances, we do not think the court should have decided as a matter of law that the city was free from negligence. Counsel for the appellant relies, upon two cases: Mason v. Philadelphia, 205 Pa. 177, and Eisenbrey v. Philadelphia, 19 Philadelphia 504, these being the only cases cited in' his brief. In the Mason case, the plaintiff being in the street made a misstep and fell into the gutter which was curbed on both sides.
Judgment affirmed.