Knight v. City of Des Moines
| Decision Date | 08 May 1912 |
| Citation | 135 N.W. 1089,155 Iowa 299 |
| Parties | JOHN KNIGHT, Appellant, v. THE CITY OF DES MOINES, Appellee |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Polk District Court.--HON. HUGH BRENNAN, Judge.
ACTION at law to recover damages for injuries sustained by plaintiff, due to a fall upon one of the sidewalks of the defendant city. Trial to a jury, directed verdict for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
John McLennan, for appellant.
H. W Byers, R. O. Brennan and Eskil Carlson, for appellee.
I.
Plaintiff is a teamster, who at the time of the accident in question lived at what was known as 212 Forest Avenue, in the city of Des Moines. To reach his home, he had to pass over Second Street, which runs north and south, intersecting Forest Avenue some distance north of his then residence. At the time of the accident, Second Street had not been fully improved, and there were no sidewalks, save a temporary one, on the west side thereof, made of boards laid lengthwise, in places two boards wide and at other places three. On the evening of January 8, 1909, there was a light fall of snow in the city of Des Moines, which covered the walk in question. About noon on the next day, plaintiff, in returning to his home from the business part of the city, and passing over the sidewalk in question, stumbled or slipped and fell, and received the injuries of which he complains. He claims to have fallen near a telegraph pole, which was about one hundred and fifty feet from what is known as Short Street, which is a street running east and west, intersecting Second Street. At this point, the said walk was two planks wide, each board being either eight or ten inches in width and he charges that these boards were decayed and rotten and otherwise in an unsafe and dangerous condition. Plaintiff had lived in the locality but a short while, and said he did not know of the dangerous condition of the walk. He testified at the trial that the boards were rotten at the ends, and that by reason thereof his feet slipped off, and one of them went into a ditch. As a general rule, it seems that these boards were laid upon the ground, with small cross-pieces at the ends thereof to which the ends were fastened; and the testimony tends to show, or at least a jury would have been warranted in finding, that the planks where plaintiff fell were rotten, some thinner than others, but with a general slope toward the street, and that at the place where plaintiff was injured the ends of one of the planks was decayed and rotten for twenty-five or thirty inches from the end. Other witnesses testified that the planks, especially the east ones, were badly rotted and sloped toward the street. Second Street from Short to Forest Avenue is somewhat steep; and the slope of the walk itself, especially in the condition in which witnesses describe it, was enough to make it dangerous. Witnesses testified that the walk had been in a defective and dangerous condition for many months; and some of them either fell or saw others fall at the place where plaintiff received his injuries. There was also testimony to the effect that the walk had been constructed of second-hand lumber, and that many of the planks were decayed. There was, as we think, enough testimony to take the case to the jury upon the question of defendant's negligence. The walk had been out of repair and dangerous for a sufficient length of time...
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