City of Natchez v. Shields

• Citation: 21 So. 797,74 Miss. 871
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
• Decision Date: 26 April 1897
• Parties: CITY OF NATCHEZ v. CATHARINE H. S. SHIELDS

21 So. 797

74 Miss. 871

CITY OF NATCHEZ v. CATHARINE H. S. SHIELDS

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 26, 1897

March 1897

FROM the circuit court of Adams county HON. W. P. CASSEDY, Judge.

The facts are stated in the opinion.

Judgment affirmed.

Mayes &amp Harris, for appellant.

It was error in the court below to admit testimony in respect to the general condition of the street railway track, and in respect. to specific instances of defects in the track in other places than that of the accident; and also to give instructions to the jury turning upon that sort of testimony. The question in this case is specific; that is to say, was or was not the plaintiff injured by a certain defect in the street? If so, was the city chargeable with knowledge of the existence of that particular defect and under obligation to repair it? The plaintiff was not injured by the general condition of the railway track, nor was she injured by the particular defects at other places than the scene of the accident. The question before the court was not one of habit. It was not one of continuous negligence. But the question was specific and single. See Richards v. Oskosh, 81 Wis., 226; DuBois v. Kingston, 102 N.Y., 219; Collins v. Dorchester, 6 Cush., 396; Phillips v Willow, 70 Wis., 6; Matthews v. Cedar Rapids, 80 Ia., 459; Kidder v. Dunstable, 11 Gray, 342; Parker v. Publishing Co., 69 Me., 173; Elliot on Roads and Streets, 463, 646; Henckley v. Barnstable, 109 Mass. 126; Railway Co. v. Gilbert, 46 Mich. 176; McGuire v. Railway, 115 Mass. 239.

Martin & Conner and W. T. Martin, for appellee.

The reporter does not find a brief for appellee on file.

OPINION

STOCKDALE, J.

At the November, 1896, term of the Adams county circuit court, judgment was rendered in this case for plaintiff in the sum of $ 1, 500, on the verdict of a jury, a motion for a new trial overruled, and defendant appealed here.

Miss Catharine H. S. Shields sued by her next friend, J. Surget Shields, the city of Natchez for injuries received by her and inflicted upon her person as the result of the negligence of the city in allowing a street railroad to be and remain out of repair and in an unsafe condition. The record shows that in April, 1896, the appellee, a young lady in her fourteenth year, was riding into the city of Natchez in her mother's carriage, and, when crossing one of the street railways of appellant, one of the rails of the railway caught in...