Casper v. City of Sioux City

238 N.W. 591, 213 Iowa 69
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedOctober 27, 1931
DocketNo. 41089.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 238 N.W. 591 (Casper v. City of Sioux City) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Casper v. City of Sioux City, 238 N.W. 591, 213 Iowa 69 (iowa 1931).

Opinion

Kindig, J.

On December 17, 1927, about eight o’clock in the morning, the plain tiff-appellee, Marie Casper, while walking on the streets of Sioux City from her home at 609 AVest Second Street to her work in Martin’s Department Store, located in the business district, slipped on ice near AVest Seventh and AA7est Eighth Streets, injuring her right knee and otherwise bruising and cutting her body. Appellee, at the time in question, was walking southward on the east side of Market Street near a building known as the Lane Bottling AVorks, which is a quarter of a .block in length. There was an alley, adjacent and immediately south of the building, running in an easterly and westerly direction. At the time under consideration, it is claimed by appellee that there was ice on the sidewalk in front of the Lane Bottling AVorks at a point immediately north of the alley. A metallic down-spout was maintained on the southwest corner of the Lane Bottling AVorks building. This down-spout, 'instead of carrying the water into the alley, ran it onto the ground adjacent to the sidewalk. From the adjacent ground, the water flowed over and froze upon the sidewalk.

According to her version of the facts, appellee claims that during the months of November and the first part of December water from time to time thus ran from the building onto the adjacent ground and then upon the sidewalk in question, where it froze, and, because of constant traveling, followed by intermitting thawing and freezing, became rough and uneven. Hence, because of that rough and uneven condition, appellee declares she fell, as above explained, and received the injuries for which damages are now claimed. As recompense for the doctor bills, hospital costs, loss of time, and physical injuries, appellee demands the damages set forth in her petition. She was allowed $805 by the jury. Thereafter a motion for a new *71 trial was filed by the defendant-appellant, City of Sioux City. That motion was overruled and judgment entered on the verdict.

Appellant, on this appeal, asks for a reversal on three grounds. They are: First, that the district court erred in failing to direct a verdict in appellant’s favor on the theory that the city had no sufficient or adequate notice, either actual or constructive, of the alleged dangerous condition on the street; second, that the district court erroneously permitted the defendant to amend its petition setting up a new cause of action after the same was barred by the statute of limitations; and, third, that the district court wrongly instructed the jury concerning the notice required to bind the city. For convenience, the propositions will be considered in the following order.

I. No claim is made on this appeal that the appellee was guilty of contributory negligence, but it is urged by appellant that the city is not responsible for the accident and resulting injuries because it had no notice of the alleged defect on the aforesaid sidewalk. It is conceded by the appellant, for the purposes of this appeal, that there may have been water and smooth ice on the sidewalk. Likewise, the appellant admits that it may have known of such water and ice. Nevertheless, appellant maintains that such knowledge was not sufficient to fix a liability upon it. In order for the appellee to recover the damages in question, appellant declares, that rough and uneven ice must have caused the injury to appellee, and that the city must have had knowledge that said ice existed for such a period that the removal thereof would have been reasonably possible. Such knowledge did not exist, appellant concludes, because it had no actual knowledge of the alleged dangerous condition on the sidewalk, and that the rough and uneven ice did not exist for a period long enough to impart constructive notice.

By way of contradicting the appellant’s claim, appellee argues that the question whether the city did have this knowledge and notice was one for the jury. Under appellee’s petition and the instructions given the jury by the district court, water and smooth ice alone, under the circumstances, are not sufficient to fix a liability upon the city. Both the petition and instructions were predicated upon the theory that the ice on the sidewalk in question, by artificial causes had been changed into a' state of roughness and unevenness. See Turner v. City of Win *72 terset, 210 Iowa 458; Fosselman v. City of Dubuque, 211 Iowa 1213; Parks v. City of Des Moines, 195 Iowa 972; Evans v. City of Council Bluffs, 187 Iowa 369; Eickelberg v. City of Waterloo, 197 Iowa 1219.

So the appellee claims that the appellant is liable for permitting the rough and uneven ice to remain upon the sidewalk. Manifestly there was evidence in the record from which the jury might find, if they were so inclined, that the ice was rough and uneven. Mrs. Charlotte Lewis, as well as appellee, testified that ice had formed on the sidewalk and that the same was rough and uneven. These witnesses indicated that there had been thawing and freezing, and foot prints remained in the ice. This ice covered a space about the size of a “big block of sidewalk.” When appellee attempted to walk over this part of the sidewalk, light snow covered the rough and uneven ice. A jury question, therefore, was presented on the proposition whether rough and uneven ice existed, as claimed by appellee. In addition to the foregoing, appellee, before recovering from appellant, also must prove that the city had sufficient notice of the rough and uneven ice for such reasonable period that it could have removed the defect prior to the injury.

Accordingly, appellee insists that the appellant had actual knowledge of the rough and uneven ice on December 14, 1927, which was approximately three days before the accident. Not only that, but appellee further says that the appellant had constructive notice of the rough and uneven ice for many days before the 17" of December, the date of the accident. Consequently, the discussion relating to this point logically divides itself into two propositions: First, that part relating to actual notice; and, second, the portion having to do with constructive notice.

Did the city have actual notice of the rough and uneven ice in time to have removed the same before the accident? After carefully reading the record, we axe constrained to hold that a jury question at least was presented on this phase of the-controversy. An officer of the city street department testified that on the 14 day of December, preceding the accident, he was present at the place in question and caused sand and gravel to be placed- upon the sidewalk adjacent to the Lane Bottling Works. If, then, there was rough and uneven ice in the amount claimed *73 by appellee and her witness, it is evident that this official would have seen the same. It was for the jury to say whether this rough and uneven ice was present when this official visited the premises on December 14. Substantial evidence indicates that such ice existed when the officer viewed the sidewalk on December 14, preceding appellee’s injury on December 17.

There had been several snow storms during the early part of December. Witnesses testified that during November, as well as the early part of December, water 'ran from the down-spout near the alley, from the Lane Bottling Works building across the ground over the sidewalk now under consideration.

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Bluebook (online)
238 N.W. 591, 213 Iowa 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/casper-v-city-of-sioux-city-iowa-1931.