Lee v. City of Port Huron
Decision Date | 22 October 1901 |
Citation | 128 Mich. 533,87 N.W. 637 |
Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
Parties | LEE v. CITY OF PORT HURON. |
Case made from circuit court, St. Clair county; Frank Whipple Judge.
Action by Anna Lee against the city of Port Huron. From a judgment in favor of plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.
The following are the stipulated facts: Plaintiff was injured while riding on her bicycle upon a sidewalk of the defendant city. The city passed an ordinance licensing bicyclists to ride upon the sidewalks of certain streets under certain restrictions, they first paying a fee and procuring a license therefor. Plaintiff had complied with this ordinance, and was in the exercise of due care when the accident occurred. The sidewalk was defective, and the city had notice of such defect in time to repair it. The stipulated facts do not state what the defect was. The declaration charges that plaintiff, in turning to the right to allow a footman to pass, her bicycle went near the end of a plank, which ran crosswise of the walk, and was so rotten and loose that it tipped up, and caused her to fall. The court directed a verdict for the plaintiff, the stipulated amount of damages being $100.
Lincoln Avery (Beach & Benedict, of counsel), for appellant.
Henry A. Babcock, for appellee.
GRANT J. (after stating the facts).
The statute (section 3441, Comp. Laws) requires sidewalks to be kept in reasonable repair, and in a condition reasonably safe and fit for travel. A failure on the part of a municipality to keep them in such repair entails upon it liability for injuries sustained by the traveler who is in the exercise of due care. While a bicycle is a vehicle, it is not one to be classed, in all its methods of use, with other vehicles drawn by animal or mechanical power. This distinction is clearly recognized and pointed out in Murfin v. Road Co., 113 Mich. 675, 71 N.W. 1108, 38 L. R. A. 198, 67 Am. St. Rep. 489. To ride a bicycle upon a sidewalk may not be a nuisance, where to drive a horse and wagon upon it would. A baby carriage is a vehicle, but is not a nuisance upon either streets or sidewalks. The riding of a bicycle upon a sidewalk is not an unlawful act at the common law. Counsel for defendant cite Mercer v. Corbin, 117 Ind. 450, 20 N.E. 132, 3 L. R. A. 221, 10 Am. St. Rep 76, cited also in 4 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2d Ed.) 20, in support of the proposition that it is. The decision does not sustain that contention, but is based upon a statute making it 'unlawful for any person to ride or drive upon the sidewalks of any town or village, or upon any similar sidewalk for the use of foot passengers by the side of any public highway, unless in the necessary act of crossing the same.' One riding a bicycle occupies no more space than he would in walking. With proper care and proper warning there is no danger of collision with foot passengers, or...
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