Board of Commissioners v. Nichols

38 N.E. 526, 139 Ind. 611, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 348
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 16, 1894
DocketNo. 16,899
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 38 N.E. 526 (Board of Commissioners v. Nichols) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of Commissioners v. Nichols, 38 N.E. 526, 139 Ind. 611, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 348 (Ind. 1894).

Opinion

Háckney, C. J.

The appellant prosecutes this appeal from a judgment of the circuit court in favor of the appellee, on account of personal injuries alleged to have been sustained from the defective construction of a highway bridge in Jackson county.

The first alleged error presented is the action of the lower court in overruling appellant’s motion to require the complaint to be made more specific. The first specification of the motion asked that the complaint allege the name of the stream over which said bridge was constructed. The argument is that no authority existed to construct, and there was no duty to repair bridges, excepting those over a stream or watercourse, and that without the name of the stream it could not be learned that the bridge in question was one over which the appellant had control. We are unable to believe that the [614]*614name would determine tlie question urged by the appellant. If the premises stated were correct, the name would not supply the place of an affirmative allegation that the bridge spanned a watercourse. ■

The second specification asks that the complaint allege who was driving the team' at the time of the accident. The purpose of the fact sought, it is said, was to enable the appellant to impute the possible negligence of the driver to the appellee. The complaint alleged that "the plaintiff and her husband, Willard Nichols, a good and careful teamster, were driving.” While it may appear to have been unusual for two persons to be engaged at one time in driving a team of horses, it is, nevertheless, so alleged, and it is never the province of the court to require a fact stated to be denied or cast in doubt by adding a contradictory fact. If both were driving, and the appellee was required to negative the possible negligence of her husband, the proposition would arise upon demurrer, and not upon the motion.

The third specification sought to have the location of the bridge stated, "whether in the city of Seymour or in the township of Jackson.” The object claimed for this specification was to enable the appellant to learn whether the bridge was one that the city should maintain or one that the township was required to maintain.

It was alleged that the bridge formed and constituted a part of a public highway "leading into the city of Seymour,” and "at or near the city limits on the south of said city of Seymour.”

Prom this allegation, it appears sufficiently that the bridge was not within the city. If within a township that fact would not, of itself, exempt the county from its obligation to maintain it in a condition of safety for public travel. Board, etc., v. Sisson, 2 Ind. App. 311; Vaught v. Board, etc., 101 Ind. 123; Board, etc., v. [615]*615Arnett, 116 Ind. 438; Board, etc., v. Washington Tp., 121 Ind. 379.

The fourth specification sought the date of the construction of the bridge by the county. This specification is not urged with seriousness, and the fifth is conceded to be the same as the third. We find no error in ruling upon the motion.

It is next insisted that the court erred in overruling appellant’s demurrer to the complaint.

It is first urged that as the appellant can only act and speak by its record, it was necessary to allege that the bridge in question-was located and constructed pursuant to proceedings regularly conducted and recorded. If the bridge was one which the appellant was authorized to construct, it became its duty, under the statute, R. S. 1894, sections 3275, 3282 (R. S. 1881, sections 2885, 2892), to maintain it in a condition of reasonable safety, for public travel, without regard to the question as to when or by whom it was constructed, or whether there was a record of its construction. Board, etc., v. Bailey, 122 Ind. 46; Board, etc., v. Brod, 3 Ind. App. 585; Board, etc., v. Castetter, 7 Ind. App. 309; Board, etc., v. Blair, 8 Ind. App., 574.

The duty expressly enjoined by the statute is not upon the condition that the county proceeded regularly to construct the bridge. If one is injured by a neglect of this duty, a liability can not be made to depend upon the condition of the records of the county board, for a neglect in the recording would permit the board to excuse itself from liability for one act of negligence by showing that it had been guilty of another act of equal negligence.

Again the appellant insists that it was necessary to allege facts showing that the bridge was not one over which the township had control. This proposition is [616]*616fully answered by the cases first cited in this opinion. However, it is expressly alleged that the bridge in question was constructed by the appellant, and there is no room for the presumption that it may have been a township bridge.

It is suggested that the complaint should have alleged that the bridge in question was over a watercourse. The pleading was not drawn with care, but it appeared with sufficient certainty that the bridge was over ^stream. In the sense in which the word is employed in the pleading it can have but one meaning, and that is a continuous course of flowing water. As such it is a watercourse, and, as said in Board, etc., v. Wagner, Admr., 138 Ind. 609, whether natural or artificial, it is within the meaning of the statutes above cited.

It was alleged that the bridge was forty feet in length and but twelve feet in width, and without guards or balustrades; that the appellee was proceeding across the same in the night time and while it was dark, and not having any knowledge of the existence of said bridge, though proceeding without fault on her part, one of the horses fell over the side of said bridge and drew the wheels on the left side of the wagon off the bridge, throwing the appellee out into the stream below, and inflicting the injuries complained of. In addition it is alleged that “she was in all things careful and cautious, and in no way at fault. ”

Appellant’s counsel insist that the facts so specially pleaded show contributory negligence on the part of the appellee overcoming the general allegation of noncontributory negligence. The special fact urged as contributory negligence is in traveling a strange road in the darkness of the night. One is not required to forego traveling upon a public highway or bridge even if he have knowledge of dangers in, so doing, and his duty is to [617]*617use care in proportion to the known dangers, and the degree of the care used is a question for the jury. Board, etc., v. Castetter, supra; Henry County, etc., Co. v. Jackson, 86 Ind. 111; Jonesboro, etc., Co. v. Baldwin, 57 Ind. 86.

It must be conceded that public highways and bridges are constructed for use by both day time and night time, and by those acquainted as well as those unacquainted with them, and if those acquainted with the dangers of a bridge need not forego its use'much less should one not acquainted with such dangers.

The allegation is that she exercised care and was free from negligence. We can not say, in the face of this allegation, that she proceeded with undue speed; that she did not exert her faculties of sight, or that she failed to do anything that prudence would suggest. We can only say that she did not forego traveling over the bridge, and this of itself was-not necessarily negligence.

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Bluebook (online)
38 N.E. 526, 139 Ind. 611, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 348, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-commissioners-v-nichols-ind-1894.