Sachs v. City of Sioux City

80 N.W. 336, 109 Iowa 224
Supreme Court of Iowa·Decided October 10, 1899·Published·Cited by 16 cases

Opinion

Ladd, J.

'Sachs lived more than three months after receiving his injuries, and no notice whatever was served on the city within that time. The law, as it then stood, read, “In all cases of personal injuries resulting from defective 1 streets or sidewalks, or from any cause originating in the neglect or failure of any municipal corporation or its officers to perform their duties in con[226] structing or maintaining streets or sidewalks, no suit shall be brought against the corporation' after three months from the date of the injury, unless written notice specifying the place and circumstances of the injury shall’ have been served upon such municipal corporation within sixty days after the. injury.” Chapter 25 Acts Twenty-second General Assembly, as amended by chapter 63, Acts Twenty-sixth General Assembly. Had Sachs lived, his cause of action would have-been barred by this statute. Starling v. Incorporated Town of Bedford, 94 Iowa, 194. Reed v. City of Muscatine, 104 Iowa, 183. Unless, then, a new cause of action, in event of a wrongful death, is created by section 3443 of the Code, there can be no recovery. That provides, “All causes odj action shall survive and may be brought notwithstanding the death of the person entitled or liable to the same.” Brother words, the cause of action no longer dies with the party injured, as at common law, but passes to- the administrator,as assets of the estate. It does not spring into existence from death, but, having a previous existence, does not perish with-him who was entitled to- maintin an action thereon. Sherman v. Stage Co., 24 Iowa, 542; Conners v. Railway Co., 71 Iowa, 490; Dwyer v. Railway Co., 84 Iowa, 479; Worden v. Railway Co., 72 Iowa, 204; Kellow v. Railway Co., 68 Iowa, 480. See also, Taylor v. Inhabitants of Woburn, 130 Mass. 494. As Sachs had lost his cause of action by failing to give the required notice,, there was nothing to survive, and on which the administra-trix could base a suit. The ruling in Maylone v. City of St. Paul, 40 Minn. 406 (42 N. W. Rep. 88), rests in the wording of the charter of the defendant city, which required notice-“that- the person injured will claim damages of the city for such injury” to- be served, and also on statutes by which the cause of action, in event of wrongful death, is expressly given the personal representative. It will be observed that our statute does not limit the necessity of notice to' claims by the injured party. The point has not been decided in Wis-[227] cousin, though in McKeigue v. City of Janesville, 68 Wis. 50 (31 N. W. Rep. 298), it was intimated that, had deceased lived out the time within which notice should have been served, the action would have been barred; while in the earlier'case of Parish v. Town of Eden, 62 Wis. 272 (22 N. W. Rep. 399), the view entertained by the supreme court of Minnesota finds approval. The statute of that state seems, to be construed ashreating a new cause of action. Topping v. Town of St. Lawrence, 86 Wis. 526 (57 N. W. Rep. 365); McKeigue v. City of Janesville, supra. The necessity of notice in such case results from the decisions that the action of the personal representative is based, not on an independent cause of action, as in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but on one existing in favor of the deceased at the time of his death.

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Sachs v. City of Sioux City, 80 N.W. 336, 109 Iowa 224 (iowa 1899).

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