191 Pa. 627 | Pa. | 1899
Opinion by
This action of trespass was brought to recover damages for
Without undertaking to refer in detail to the evidence relating to the unsafe condition of the streets above mentioned at their intersection, or to the alleged contributory negligence of Mrs. Steel, it is sufficient to say as to the latter, that there is no evidence in the case that would warrant any trial court in saying, as matter of law, that she was guilty of contributory negligence, and as to the former, it is quite sufficient to say that if the defendant borough was legally responsible for the condition of said streets at the point in question there was an abundance of evidence in the case to satisfy the jury that it was guilty of negligence in not keeping them in reasonably safe and proper condition for use by pedestrians or others. The question as to whether said streets were public streets of the borough or not was also for the jury under proper instructions by the court.
The questions of fact involved in the case, including the questions of negligence and contributory negligence, were fairly submitted to the jury in a clear, substantially accurate and fully adequate charge, of which the defendant borough has no just reason to complain. Among other things, the learned trial judge instructed them thus: “ Proprietors of land lying within the territorial limits of a borough cannot lay it out in lots and streets as their personal interests may suggest, and thereby, without the assent of the borough, impose on it the duly of keeping these streets in repair, or subjecting it to damages for injuries which persons may sustain in passing or attempting to pass over them. The borough must do something to indicate its acceptance of them, as public highways, to render it liable
These instructions were fully warranted by competent evidence of different acts strongly indicative of acceptance of the streets at the point where Mrs. Steel was injured, viz: the intersection of Oneida and Seventeenth streets. Special reference in detail to the evidence of those acts is unnecessary. It was clearly for the jury and, of course, it was passed upon by them in making up their verdict.
In view of the evidence before the jury and of the instructions under which it was submitted, their verdict for the plain tiffs necessarily implies a finding by them of substantially these facts: That the streets forming the intersection of Oneida and Seventeenth—the place where Mrs. Steel was injured—were accepted as public streets by the borough; that it was guilty of negligence in not keeping the same in reasonably safe and proper condition, and that by reason of that negligence, Mrs
There is nothing involved in either of the specifications of error that requires further notice. Neither of them is sustained.
Judgment affirmed.