Kenady v. City of Lawrence
| Decision Date | 27 February 1880 |
| Citation | 128 Mass. 318 |
| Parties | Edward Kenady v. City of Lawrence |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Argued November 5, 1879
Essex. Tort for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff, on January 9, 1878, by an alleged defect in a sidewalk of one of the streets in the defendant city. Answer: 1. A general denial. 2. That the plaintiff failed to give the defendant the notice required by the St. of 1877, c. 234. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Gardner, J., the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff; and the defendant alleged exceptions, the substance of which is stated in the opinion.
Exceptions sustained.
E. T Burley, for the defendant.
J. K Tarbox, for the plaintiff.
OPINION
The St. of 1877, c. 234, materially changed the law relating to the liability of cities and towns for injuries from defects in highways. The change which bears on the plaintiff's action is wrought by the provisions of § 3, which make it a condition precedent to the maintenance of an action for such injury, that the person injured shall within thirty days thereafter give notice to the county, town, place or persons by law obliged to keep the highway in repair, of the time, place and cause of the said injury or damage. § 4 provides that the notice, in the case of a city, may be given to the mayor, city clerk or treasurer, or to any police officer.
It is plain that the purpose of these provisions is to render it as nearly as may be, impossible for towns and cities to be imposed upon by fraudulent claims and suits for injuries alleged to have been sustained long before any demand for compensation or notice of any kind has been given to the municipality, and under such circumstances that the city or town has no means of showing whether the alleged defect actually existed, or whether the alleged injury was actually sustained. In order that this purpose of the statute may be effected, it is necessary that in the case of a city, where the notice may be given to any police officer, as well as to the mayor, clerk or treasurer, the notice itself should show affirmatively, either by a form of words, or by the circumstances under which it is given, that it is intended by the party giving it as a notice for the purpose of fixing his right of action. It is not notice to the city if, in a casual conversation, the person injured narrates to his neighbor, who chances to be a police officer, the...
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