Braven v. Pub. Serv. Electric & Gas Co.
| Decision Date | 09 October 1935 |
| Docket Number | No. 60.,60. |
| Citation | 181 A. 46 |
| Parties | DEN BRAVEN v. PUBLIC SERVICE ELECTRIC & GAS CO. et al. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
Appeal from Supreme Court.
Action by Florence Den Braven, as administratrix and as administratrix ad pros of the estate of Maude Chappell, deceased, against the Public Service Electric & Gas Company and Public Service Co-ordinated Transport. From a judgment for the defendants, the plaintiff appeals.
Judgment affirmed.
H. Kermit Green, of Newark, for appellant.
Henry H. Fryling, of Newark (William F. Vosseller, of Newark, of counsel), for respondents.
The complaint filed in this case was struck out by the circuit court judge and judgment later entered in favor of the defendant. From this judgment the plaintiff appeals. The complaint was struck out because, as held in the court below, it failed to state a cause of action.
The substance of the complaint was that the defendant company owned premises on Van Houten street in Paterson; that the sidewalk fronting said premises had been covered by a snowfall; that the company used the sidewalk for the egress and ingress of its motorbusses and other motor vehicles through a driveway crossing the sidewalk; that on December 11, 1933, this use of the crossing of the sidewalk had caused the snowy condition to become icy and slippery; that on that date plaintiff fell upon this icy sidewalk and suffered a fracture of the neck and femur.
We concur with the learned trial judge in the view that no legal cause of action is set forth in the complaint. It is not alleged that the use of the sidewalk was an improper one, in that the vehicles were not proper to be so used or that the crossing itself was not a lawful one and suitable for the purpose. The use, therefore, by the company was that use which every occupant of premises with a driveway therefrom crossing the sidewalk into the public highway exercises; each differing in degree, perhaps. It was the same lawful use, though different in kind, that the pedestrian exercises when he travels the sidewalk longitudinally or in crossing. This being true, the case falls within the well-defined class of cases which absolves the user from liability for conditions imposed by nature where no other and further interference with the course of nature than that exercised by the defendant exists.
It is well known that travel upon streets and sidewalks after falls of snow disturbs the integrity of the original snowfall, and that...
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Davis v. Pecorino
...She suffered a comminuted fracture at the distal end of the right ankle. The trial court, relying on Den Braven v. Public Service Elec. & Gas Co., 115 N.J.L. 543, 181 A. 46 (E. & A. 1935), entered judgment for the defendant. The Appellate Division affirmed. It concluded that the plaintiff's......
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Foley v. Ulrich, A--945
...line.' (at p. 467, 168 A. at p. 571) Taggart has been consistently approved in the later cases. Den Braven v. Public Service Electric & Gas Co., 115 N.J.L. 543, 545, 181 A. 46 (E. & A. 1935); Corbett v. Warner, 137 N.J.L. 281, 59 A.2d 597 (Sup.Ct.1948); MacGregor v. Tinker Realty Co., 37 N.......
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Franzen v. Dimock Gould & Co.
...the pedestrian be called upon to correct the like condition resulting from the prints of his shoes.' Den Braven v. Public Service Electric & Gas Co., 115 N.J.L. 543, 181 A. 46, 47. 'See, also, Massey v. Worth, 9 W.W.Harr. 211, 39 Del. 211, 197 A. 673; Bamberg v. Bryan's Wet Wash Laundry, In......
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Massey v. Worth
... ... the public highway (Den Braven v. Public Service, etc., ... & Gas Co. et al., (Err. & App.) 115 N.J.L ... own property. Den Braven v. Pub. Service, etc., & Gas ... Co., 115 N.J.L. 543, 181 A. 46, supra ... ...