80 Iowa 351 | Iowa | 1890
— It is conceded that the bridge in question was a county bridge, and that it was known to the board of supervisors of defendant to be in an unsafe condition prior to the time of its falling. About the fourth day of September, 1888, the board caused it to be examined and condemned. By authority and direction of the board, signboards bearing, in large letters, the words “Bridge unsafe” were prepared; and, on the fifth day of September, 1888, one was nailed up at each end of the bridge, in a conspicuous place. In addition, at one end of the bridge two wires were stretched across the bridge at about the height of the breast of a horse, and securely fastened to the sides by means of staples ; and a wire was stretched and fastened in a similar manner at the other end of the bridge. The bridge was in an isolated place, and was used but little. It was about three hundred feet in length, and eighteen or twenty feet above the water of the stream. On the-ninth day of September, 1888, the plaintiff crossed the bridge in the morning without accident. The signs were then on the bridge, and the wires were there, but loosened at one end, and thrown to one side, in such a manner as not to form any obstruction to the crossing of the bridge. Plaintiff claims that he could not read English, and that he did not see the signs nor the wires, and did not know the condition of the bridge, not having been to it for a year before. On his return in the evening the bridge fell while he was on it with his team, and as a result his horses were killed, and the wagon was damaged. The court instructed the jury as follows: “7. It was the duty of the defendant, when it knew the bridge was unsafe, to give such notice thereof to the public as would be effective, or, if obstructions and notices were both -relied upon, they should be such, taken together, as wo aid be effective ; and it would also
Appellee insists that the action of the court in giving the paragraph of its charge quoted, and in refusing to give the instruction asked by defendant, is fully sustained by the opinion of this court in Brown v. Jefferson County, 16 Iowa, 343. The facts in that case appear to have been that ‘ ‘ the county authorities, apprehensive that the bridge was unsafe, had posted up a written
The rule adopted by the district court made defendant liable for the continued maintenance of the barrier, even though it was removed without fault on its part, and so short a time before the accident as to prevent its