Maxedon v. City of Corinth

124 So. 795, 155 Miss. 588, 1929 Miss. LEXIS 333
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 2, 1929
DocketNo. 28055.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 124 So. 795 (Maxedon v. City of Corinth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maxedon v. City of Corinth, 124 So. 795, 155 Miss. 588, 1929 Miss. LEXIS 333 (Mich. 1929).

Opinion

McGowen, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellant, Lyla Hern Maxedon, a girl about six years of age, by her mother and next friend, Mrs. A. B. Maxedon, sued the city of Corinth to recover .damages for injuries alleged to have been received by her as a result of having fallen off of a concrete sidewalk to the bottom of a ditch, which the sidewalk crosses, in the said city. The jury returned a verdict for the appellee, the city of Corinth, the court entered judgment thereon accordingly, and the appellant appeals to this court.

*594 In 1926 and 1927 the city of Corinth constructed hard-surface streets,, concrete gutters, sidewalks, and culverts along and over Tate street, which runs east and west across the city limits through the southern part of said city.

At the place where this child received her injury there was a creek running* from north to south across Tate street near the middle of a block. The creek was about twenty feet wide at the top, and was from six to eight feet deep from the concrete walk which was constructed across it.

Before the improvements were made, there was a plank walk across this creek, which walk was about four feet wide and twenty feet long, with banisters or guardrails on either side of it. The city constructed a ten-foot concrete culvert across this street to convey the water of the ditch. Where the sidewalk crosses this creek, there were metallic cuffs, or pipes, with threads cut thereon imbedded in the concrete, reaching up two or two and one-half inches above the surface of the walk, so that metallic pipes for banisters could be screwed therein. The record shows that one of these cuffs was toward the east, another toward the west, and one in the center, and that the walk remained in this condition without the banisters being attached for several months, until on or about September 15, 1927.

In the daytime in the month of July, 1927, at about five o’clock, the mother of Fyla Fern sent her across this bridge to the home of Mrs. Brown to secure a pair of scissors belonging to Mrs., Maxedon which had been loaned to Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Maxédon saw her little girl, Lyla Fern, and a little Brown girl about the same age ■standing on the sidewalk over this ditch; she called to her to “hurry up” with the scissors, and the cause of action is based on this statement of Mrs. Maxedon’s:

“I told her to go and get my scissors and I didn’t know whether she had gone to Mrs. Brown’s and was *595 coming back or not, but I saw her with a little girl and I told her. to hurry np with the scissors and she was facing Mrs. Brown’s and it seemed like she staggered over something and into the ditch she went backwards.”

The proof further showed that the little girl fell upon stones or pieces of concrete which were in the bottom of the ditch, or creek, and that both bones in her arm were broken. Her arm was placed in a cast, and remained in that condition about four weeks.

Mrs. Brown and the occupants of her home consisting of three other witnesses testified that they were eyewitnesses of the accident, and saw the two little girls scuffling, and that in the scuffle one little girl pulled the scissors from the other, and thereby the little Maxedon girl fell from the sidewalk into the ditch. They said she was not at or near the places where the metal cuffs were protruding from the sidewalk.

There was offered in evidence, over the objection of the appellant, three photographs showing the location of the Brown house, the Maxedon house, and the street, and showing the change in the situation by having the rail, or banister, attached to the metal cuffs, and a fill-in so as to reduce the width of the creek on one side. There was no dispute in the record but that there were no banisters attached to the cuffs at the time of the accident, and the photographs were confessedly made after the location had been changed in the particulars to which we have adverted.

The following instructions were given for the defendant, which we have numbered for our own convenience:

(1) “The court further charges the jury for the defendant that the defendant is under no greater duty as regards the safety of its streets for a child than it is for an adult; and if you believe that the said street or walk was at the time of the injury reasonably safe for the use of an adult, while the adult was exercising reasonable care for his safety, then the defendant is not *596 liable to the plaintiff in any sum, and1 you will find for the defendant. ’ ’

(2) “The court charges the jury for the defendant that you cannot find for the plaintiff because there was banister's on the old bridge1, nor because the city after-wards placed banisters on the new one, unless you believe from the preponderance of the evidence that the bridge at the time of the injury was not safe for persons to travel over in the daytime while in the exercise of due care of his own safety. ’ ’

(3) “The court further instructs the jury for the defendant that if you believe1 the bridge was safe for persons walking over it while in the exercise of due care for his own safety and that the child would not have been injured except for the scuffling between her and another little girl over the pair of scissors, then you cannot find for the plaintiff and your verdict will be for the defendant.”

The first assignment of error is, “The court erred in allowing the pictures taken after the conditions were changed to be introduced as evidence.”

While the general rule is that photographs must substantially represent the location at the time of the accident, still in this case these pictures so pronouncedly marked the changes by the addition of the banisters that no injury could possibly have accrued to jthe appellant by the introduction of the photographs. There was no dispute that the banisters were not constructed at the time of the injury, and the pictures were just as helpful to appellant as to appellee in developing the case; and we think that the pictures substantially represented the location to the jury, and that appellant was not prejudiced by their introduction. See 22 C. J., p. 919, section 1124; also Le Barron v. State, 107 Miss. 633, 65 So. 648.

Second. “The court erred in refusing to allow the witness W. G. Mitchell to testify what his duties were as Street Commissioner.” 'When asked as to his duties, *597 the court sustained an objection, and stated that his duties were fixed by law. No error can be predicated upon this because no conceivable injury could have been done the appellant, for the court peremptorily instructed the jury that the city had notice of the condition of this sidewalk and bridge.

The third assignment of error is the giving by the court of instruction No. 1 (as numbered above), and the burden of appellant’s brief is to the effect that the city owes small children a higher degree of care than it owes to adults, and cites authorities which sustain that position.

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Bluebook (online)
124 So. 795, 155 Miss. 588, 1929 Miss. LEXIS 333, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maxedon-v-city-of-corinth-miss-1929.