96 Pa. Super. 251 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1929
Argued April 16, 1929. The substance of plaintiff's testimony is that on the evening of December 30, 1926, between eight and nine o'clock, she with a granddaughter, aged nine, were walking on the sidewalk of Washington Street in the City of New Castle. There were "lots of people that time of night" and they were "going along with the crowd" and as they came near an intersecting street called Mercer, she slipped on the ice and fell in the middle of the sidewalk and sustained severe injuries.
Her first witness stated that Mrs. Thomas fell on the "ice which covered the sidewalk all over, it was like a sheet of glass, hard, not shiny." He did not know how thick it was.
The next witness testified the pavement was icy. The ice "had lain there a week (later she said several days) and had been tramped in and frozen again. Was quite rough in my estimation. It had thawed several times and frozen again." She could not say whether it was thick or thin. It seemed thick to her because *253 it had "lain so long and been tramped so much." The walks along Washington Street "would melt in the day time and freeze in the evening." There was nothing unusual about the appearance of the ice. The next witness gave about the same story. Could not tell whether the ice was thick or thin. Not many places on the street had been cleared off. "It was rather snowy all over." The man in charge of the local weather bureau testified that on the 28th of December, there was no appreciable snow, the day before there had been 1 3/4 inches, on the 26th, there was rain and snow about 3/4 inch, and on the 25th, one half inch, and on the 24th, one inch.
No negligence on the part of the city is shown in the above testimony. This court held in Ingram v. Philadelphia,
Appellant's argument is largely based upon the assumption that the ice in question was rough and that there was a lump, applying to it the term "obstruction." We cannot find any warrant for the use of that designation. It is true that one witness stated "it was quite rought in my estimation" but the witness gave no description of it, could not say whether it was thick or not, and saw nothing unusual about it. The appellant cites Hibberd v. Philadelphia,
We are all of the opinion that the case was rightly decided. The judgment is affirmed. *255