Kethledge v. City of Petoskey

146 N.W. 164, 179 Mich. 301, 1914 Mich. LEXIS 509
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 26, 1914
DocketDocket No. 27
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 146 N.W. 164 (Kethledge v. City of Petoskey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kethledge v. City of Petoskey, 146 N.W. 164, 179 Mich. 301, 1914 Mich. LEXIS 509 (Mich. 1914).

Opinions

Stone, J.

This is an action on the case to recover damages for personal injuries claimed by plaintiff to have been sustained by her through the falling of a portion of a cement sidewalk upon which she was traveling in the city of Petoskey. Bay View street, or road, runs northeasterly from the Arlington Hotel to Bay View, a distance of about one mile. On the westerly side of the street was a six-foot cement sidewalk which was constructed some 10 or 12 years ago. On May 23, 1912, plaintiff, then 17 years old and residing at Bay View, while on her way to school in Petoskey, about 8 a. m., with two girl companions, claims to have been injured by reason of the falling of a portion of this sidewalk where it crossed a sort of culvert, near the Arlington Hotel. The immediate cause of the falling of the walk was that the earth underneath had become entirely washed out, so that two or three of the five-foot slabs were left wholly unsupported, and when plaintiff and her companions reached this point the walk fell with them, and they were dropped a distance of four or five feet. There had been a heavy fall of rain that morning, and upon the trial of the case there was considerable conflict [303]*303in the evidence as to the extent of the storm, its effect, if any, upon the foundation of the walk, the length of time during which the support of the walk had been washed out, the condition of the walk for a year previous, the care or want of care of the plaintiff in not observing the condition of the walk before she walked upon it at the place of the fall, and the proximate cause of the injury; but, as we view the record, these were all questions of fact for the consideration of the jury, and were properly submitted to them. The extent of the plaintiff’s injury, and whether she received permanent injuries or not, are, in our opinion, the more important questions in the case. The case was tried on May 7, 1913, about’ one year after the injury.

Upon the main facts the plaintiff testified as follows:

“I fell on my face into the water. The water was deep enough that I heard the roaring of it and held my head up to keep it out of the water. My garments were all wet when I was taken out. I could not move; I was pinned down by a piece of cement. I think two slabs of cement fell. My left arm and shoulder were pinned down. I called to Mabel (Mabel Shannon, a companion) to help me, but she couldn’t, and Mr. Sala helped me out, and Dr. George Eeycraft assisted in getting me up on the ground. I certainly was hurt. At the time I couldn’t exactly tell where I was hurt. I thought my left arm was. broken, but it was not. Dr. Eeycraft said it was badly twisted and the ligaments torn. I was also hurt in my side, and my spine, left side. My left hand, also. The doctor gave me quieting medicine, because I was so nervous that I was nearly beside myself. I suffered much pain while I was there from my nervous system, my arm also pained me greatly, and I could not sit up because I was so weak. As soon as I got home that day I noticed the pain in my back, and afterwards. I did not go to school the next day, have not gone to school since. Did not leave my home next day. Was not able to sit up for two weeks, and it was a matter of six or [304]*304seven weeks before I was able to be up and around and out of the house at all. I was weak and my arm pained me greatly all this time. I was prevented from leaving the house by the fact that I was weak and not able to walk around. My nerves were affected, ever so much. I feel the pain in my back yet, at the base of the spine. My left arm also pains me greatly yet. It throws itself out of joint. It has done so very recently. If I twist it a certain way — often putting on a glove will sometimes throw it out, while sometimes it will be perhaps several hours that it will not come out of joint at all. I mean directly at the elbow it comes out of joint. I cannot tell when it is going to come out of joint until it does. Then I have to stretch it around a certain way until it slips back into place, or I couldn’t stand the pain. That arm isn’t as strong as the other. I have pain in it, not continuously, but more or less, all the time. It inconveniences me. It is weak to handle anything. I cannot do the work with it that I could before it was hurt. I have a great deal of pain in my back at present. It has been- so since the accident. I never had pain in my back before it, nor trouble with my left arm slipping out of the socket. The pain in my back is not every day, but at times, often, every week, sometimes more than once a week, sometimes maybe not once a week. It does not seem to be caused by anything I do; it just pains at the base of the spine. It is a sharp pain, lasts different times, it pains for some minutes, then it will pain again, sort of recurrent, not continuous. When I fell something struck me on the left side, in the ribs, and it was sore and black and blue. I suffered considerable pain from that. My monthly functions have been affected, causing pain, a great deal, which lasts several hours. Never had the pain before I was hurt. Pain comes every month since I was hurt. I have never slept as well as I did before the accident. As soon as I drop asleep I jump and it awakens me. It is the nerves, I expect, that cause that. I never was nervous before I was hurt. I always slept well before I was hurt. I was in the tenth and eleventh grades when I was hurt. Would have had the twelfth and part of the eleventh grade to finish before graduating. I never returned to school after the accident, because I was not able to [305]*305take the examinations; at the time examinations were being held I was just getting so that I could walk around and be around the house. • The next fall I didn’t feel able to return and start in the new term— I was nervous most all the time. I am able to now. I am working at the telephone office, clerical work. I am earning $5 per week there. With the condition of my nervous system, my arm, and my spine, I do not think that I could do any kind of work that would require physical effort. I used to help my mother with the housework, do some now,, but am not able to do so without inconvenience to myself. I am not able to help in the laundry, and work like that; cannot sweep much, on account of my arm. I did scrubbing before I was hurt, but have not done any since, am not able to.”

Dr. Reycraft, the only physician who was sworn in the case, testified that he saw the plaintiff a few minutes after she fell through the walk; that she complained of pain in the left arm and in her back; he took her home and examined her there; that she had a slight abrasion of the skin near the elbow joint, and she complained a great deal of pain in the joint; that he examined the arm for a fracture, but did not find any; that he also examined her back, just on the shoulder wheré there was just a redness; that the skin had been excoriated slightly; that she complained of pain in her left side, just the shoulder and shoulder blade.

“Q. Now, coming down to that elbow, did you notice or find that the ligaments had been torn; that the elbow was loose from the socket?
“A. Why it is hard to examine, to tell exactly when the ligaments — unless they are frightfully torn — but in an examination where an elbow is that way we would expect more or less trouble with the ligaments. If Miss Kethledge’s elbow comes out of the socket, becomes misplaced, it would indicate that the ligaments were not holding the head of the radius correctly. It would show that the ligaments might have been stretched. If a person had never had that hap[306]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
146 N.W. 164, 179 Mich. 301, 1914 Mich. LEXIS 509, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kethledge-v-city-of-petoskey-mich-1914.