Compton v. Inhabitants of Town of Revere

• Decision Date: 19 June 1901
• Citation: 179 Mass. 413,60 N.E. 931
• Parties: COMPTON v. INHABITANTS OF TOWN OF REVERE.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

179 Mass. 413

60 N.E. 931

COMPTON v. INHABITANTS OF TOWN OF REVERE.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

June 19, 1901

COUNSEL

Sherman

L. Whipple and Ethelbert V. Grabill, for plaintiff.

Louis L. G. De Rochemont, for defendant.

OPINION

LATHROP J.

The plaintiff seeks to recover for personal injuries sustained by him on account of an alleged defect in a highway in the defendant town. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff; and the case is before us on the defendant's exceptions. There were 11 requests for instructions, only one of which need be considered, and that is the last, which is as follows: 'That, upon all the evidence in the case, the verdict should be for the defendant.'

The undisputed facts in the case are that in consequence of an order of the county commissioners made on September 1, 1896 it became necessary for the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn Railroad Company to build a bridge over which Beach street was to pass, and to raise the grades of Beach street and of Ocean avenue,--two highways running at a right angle with each other. The railroad company, by the order, had a year in which to do the work. At the request of the railroad company the board of selectmen of the defendant town voted to grant permission to the company to close the streets; and the selectmen had nothing to do with the work that was being done on these streets during the fall, winter, and spring of 1896 and 1897. The work of changing the grade began about the last of September, 1896. and continued until some time in December of that year. The ground then became frozen, and the work had to be abandoned until the next spring. When work ceased in December, Beach street was in a very rough condition. The dirt lay as it had been dumped from the tipcarts, and had not been leveled off, and it was obvious to every one who saw it that it was not in condition for public travel. The plaintiff lived on Kimball avenue,--a street west of the bridge on Ocean avenue, and running diagonally into that avenue. On the morning of March 1, 1897, the plaintiff left his house, crossed the bridge, which was then incomplete went into the middle of the street, and made his way along Beach street until he came opposite the grocery of one O'Brien. There was a bank of earth there, three or four feet above the sidewalk. In attempting to go down this, he slipped and fell, and sustained the injuries complained of. The...