Home/Supreme Court of Iowa/Worrell v. City of Bloomfield

Worrell v. City of Bloomfield

127 N.W. 1082, 148 Iowa 691
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedOctober 24, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 127 N.W. 1082 (Worrell v. City of Bloomfield) 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
Worrell v. City of Bloomfield, 127 N.W. 1082, 148 Iowa 691 (iowa 1910).

Opinion

Evans, J.

The record in this case is voluminous, and the assignments of error are very many. These latter, however, all circle about one main contention,' namely, that [692]*692the alleged injury to plaintiff’s horses occurred, not upon the street of the defendant, but upon a strip of ground adjacent thereto. Madison Street is one of the main business streets of the defendant city. It extends north and south, and it runs along the west side of the Courthouse Square. A reference to the following photograph of said street will be an aid to an understanding of the case:

The plaintiff drove his team along this street, and turned it to one of the hitching posts which appear in the photograph on the east side. At the foot of this post some wood ashes had been deposited the night before in a depression or cavity. During the night a heavy rain had fallen, which resulted in the formation of lye, as contended by plaintiff. By the action of the horses, this lye was splashed about their legs to the alleged serious injury of the horses. Evidence was introduced, on behalf of the plaintiff, tending to show that such ashes were deposited at such place by the direction of the mayor of the city. The evidence was such as to warrant a finding that the same constituted a nuisance. On the part of the defendant, it was denied that the mayor directed the' deposit of such ashes, or had any knowledge thereof. It was also contended that the line of hitching posts was outside the line of the street, and that the nuisance complained of was likewise beyond the limits of the streets. Because of this alleged fact, it is contended, also, that a verdict should have been directed for the defendant.

A few salient facts are undisputed. Madison Street, as laid out in the original plat of the town, was eighty feet wide. What now appears upon the plat as Courthouse Square formerly belonged to the town. In 1872 the town dedicated the same to, Davis County for courthouse purposes. Its dimensions as they appear upon the plat were three hundred feet square. This dedication was accepted by formal resolution by the board of supervisors in 1875. In 1878 a courthouse was erected thereon, and a fence

[693]*693

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Related

Cox v. City of Des Moines
7 N.W.2d 32 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1942)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
127 N.W. 1082, 148 Iowa 691, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/worrell-v-city-of-bloomfield-iowa-1910.