Sheff v. City of Huntington

16 W. Va. 307, 1880 W. Va. LEXIS 29
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 27, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by74 cases

This text of 16 W. Va. 307 (Sheff v. City of Huntington) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sheff v. City of Huntington, 16 W. Va. 307, 1880 W. Va. LEXIS 29 (W. Va. 1880).

Opinion

Johnson, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the Coart:

The first question presented is: Should the demurrer to the declaration have been sustained ?

The counsel for plaintiff in error insists that the declaration was demurrable, because “the plaintiffs in then-declaration do not allege that the defendant or any of its corporate officers, had any notice that the road or place complained of was out of repair or in bad condition, before the injury complained of occurred.”

Syllabus 1. It is not necessary that the declaration should contain any such allegation. The statute gives an action for any injury to any person by reason of a public road or bridge being out of repair. The statute does not limit the liability of the corporation, whose duty it is to keep a public road or bridge in good repair, to cases in which they have had notice of any defect in the road. It is the duty of the corporation to know that the road is in good repair, and see to it that citizens may have full protection from injury by reason of the roads being in an unsafe condition. If a person is injured by reason of a public road being out of repair, the corporation, whose legal duty it is to keep the road in good repair, is liable to him for damages, whether it had notice of such defect or not. Shearman & Redfield on Negligence, § 369; Merrill v. Hampden, 26 Me. 234; Howe v. The Town of Castleton, 25 Vt. 162; Griffin v. Town of Williamstown, 6 W. Va. 312.

The second objection to the declaration is, that “it does not allege that the defendant knowingly and negligently on its part allowed or permitted said place or said road complained of to get in bad order or condition, or out of repair.”

Syllabus 2. Neither was it necessary for the declaration to contain such an allegation ; for it is not even a defence to an action for an injury caused by a defect in a highway, that the city used ordinary care and diligence in repairing the road or street, if by such care the same was not made [313]*313safe and convenient, but remained detective. Horton v. Inhabitants of Ipswich, 12 Cush. 488. It it would not' be a defence, of course it would not be necessary to allege in the declaration and prove, that the city knowingly and negligently permitted the road or street to get out of repair.

The third objection to the declaration is, that “it does not allege directly that the place or road complained of was under the jurisdiction of the corporate authorities of said city.-” This is surely a misapprehension on the part of counsel, as an inspection of the declaration will show.

The fourth objection to the declaration is, that “it does not allege that the road was out of repair.”

The language of the declaration is: “Yet the said defendant well knowing the premises heretofore, to wit: on the 1st day of October, 1876, and for a long time previous thereto, at the county and city aforesaid, wrongfully and injuriously allowed and permitted that part of the said common or public road situated in its corporate limits to become and remain in bad condition, order and repair, in this : that the said defendant allowed the said road to become sideling, and permitted a large rut to be worn in, along and across said public road, at or near a sugar-tree standing in or on the side of said road a short distance above the place the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad crosses said public road and within the corporate limits aforesaid, by means whereof,” &c. It would be technical indeed to hold that this language was not equivalent to saying the road “was out of repair.”

The fifth and last objection to the declaration is, that it does not allege “that the female plaintiff was using ordinary care in driving and passing over and along said road and place complained of at the time of the said accident and injury.”

Syllabus 3. It was not necessary for the plaintiffs to allege in their declaration, that they were using ordinary care and were not guilty of negligence which contributed to the injury [314]*314of the female plaintiff. Negligence in the plaintiffs contributing to the injury is a defence at common law, the benefit of which the defendant may avail himself in a proper case. Snyder et al. v. P. C. & St. L. Railway Co., 11 W. Va. 14; B. & O. R. R. Co. v. Whittington’s adm’r., 30 Gratt. 805.

The demurrer to the declaration was properly overruled.

It is insisted, that the court erred in giving plaintiffs’ second instruction. The instruction is as follows: “If the jury believe from the evidence that the road mentioned in the declaration was within the corporate limits of the defendant, The City of Huntington, and that the same was out of repair and in a bad and unsafe condition, as charged in the declaration, and that by reason of the said road being out of repair and in such bad and unsafe condition the female plaintiff was injured, as mentioned and described in the declaration; the plaintiffs are entitled to a-verdict in this case, unless they are further satisfied from the evidence, that the said female plaintiff was guilty of negligence on her part, and that her said negligence was the proximate and not the remote cause of the injury she sustained; and that the burden of proof as to such negligence .of the female plaintiff is on the defendant.”

Three objections are urged by defendant’s counsel to this instruction — First, “because it fails to instruct the jury that they must find that the road complained of was a public road, before they can find for the plaintiffs, and it leaves the jury to infer, that the finding of the other facts mentioned in the instruction is sufficient to entitle the plaintiffs to a verdict, without finding that the road is a public one, as charged in the declaration, and for that reason calculated to mislead the jury.” In other words, because it assumes that a fact necessary to the recovery has been proved in the case — Second, “because it should have instructed the jury that any negligence on the part of the driver, contributing to cause the in[315]*315jury complained of, should be considered the negligence of the female plaintiff, and failing to embrace rhat qualification in so general a charge it was calculated to mislead the jury, and cause them to overlook any carelessness of the driver, although contributing largely to cause the injury” — Third, “because it instructs the jury, that the burden of proof is upon the defendant to satisfy the jury that the the female plaintiff's negligence contributed to cause the injury.” A fourth objection is virtually urged in the exception to the ruling of the court in refusing to give defendant's second instruction; and that objection is, that the court instructed the jury, that “the proof of the negligence of the female plaintiff, before it could defeat her right to a verdict, must show that such negligence was the proximate and not the remote cause of the injury.”

We will consider first the third objection : “That the court instructed the jury that the burden of proof of contributory negligence was on the defendant.” There is much conflict of authority on this question. Many courts have held, that in an action on the case for an injury the burden of proof of ordinary, care or want of contributory negligence is on the plaintiff.

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Bluebook (online)
16 W. Va. 307, 1880 W. Va. LEXIS 29, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sheff-v-city-of-huntington-wva-1880.