Levine v. Town of West Haven
| Decision Date | 27 June 1935 |
| Citation | 179 A. 841,120 Conn. 207 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | LEVINE v. TOWN OF WEST HAVEN. |
Appeal from Superior Court, New Haven County; Patrick B O'Sullivan, Judge.
Action by John N. Levine, Jr., against the Town of West Haven to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by a defect in the highway, brought to the superior court and tried to the jury. Verdict and judgment for the plaintiff, and appeal by the defendant.
No error.
Argued before MALTBIE, C.J., and HAINES, HINMAN, BANKS, and AVERY JJ.
Curtiss K. Thompson and Herbert S. MacDonald, both of New Haven, for appellant.
Irving Sweedler and Samuel E. Hoyt, both of New Haven, for appellee.
The plaintiff, while walking on Nashawena avenue in West Haven struck his foot against a water gate which protruded above the surface of the ground, and received the injuries for which this action was brought. This appeal is from the denial of the defendant's motion to set aside the verdict of the jury in favor of the plaintiff. The sole question presented is whether upon the evidence the jury could reasonably have found that Nashawena avenue at the point where the plaintiff was injured is a public highway. It was the contention of the plaintiff that Nashawena avenue had been established as a public highway by dedication and acceptance by use by the public at large. There was evidence in support of this contention, and indeed the defendant apparently does not question that the jury might reasonably have so found. Its contention is that only a portion of the width of the road was used by the public, that the water gate was beyond the limits of the portion of the road so used, and that consequently the jury could not reasonably have found that the place where the plaintiff received his injuries had been accepted as a public highway.
There was little substantial dispute as to the relevant facts. Nashawena avenue is 50 feet wide between the street lines of the abutting property owners, as shown upon a map on file in the office of the town clerk of West Haven dated April, 1902. It has been used by the public for at least 27 or 28 years. It is a short dead end street in an outlying section of the town, and runs in a general northerly and southerly direction from Ocean avenue on the south to a trolley track on the north. There is a sign with the name of the street upon it at its intersection with Ocean avenue, and there are street lights and hydrants in the street. There are nine or ten houses upon the street which are occupied only during the summer months. The traveled portion of the highway is between 24 and 25 feet wide, on the east side of which is a foot path. There is a strip of grass between the traveled portion of the street and the property line on the west, and the water gate in question is located in this strip 16 feet west of the westerly edge of the traveled portion of the street. The street line at this point is marked by a stone wall. The street being a dead end street, there is no through vehicular traffic. There is a trolley station at the north end of the street and pedestrians pass through the street in going to and for between the trolley station and Ocean avenue, most of whom make use of the footpath on the east...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Meshberg v. Bridgeport City Trust Co.
...is "of common convenience and necessity." See Kenneson v. Bridgeport, 130 Conn. 298, 300-301, 33 A.2d 313 (1943); Levine v. West Haven, 120 Conn. 207, 210, 179 A. 841 (1935). The findings made by the trial court fall far short of this standard. While the public's actual use of the property ......
-
Kenneson v. City Of Bridgeport.
...4 L.Ed. 579. Use by the public may in itself be evidence that a highway is of common convenience and necessity. Levine v. Town of West Haven, 120 Conn. 207, 210, 179 A. 841. Nor is it necessary that the use be more general than such as serves the convenience of those persons who have lawful......
-
Porto v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co.
... ... Appeal ... from Court of Common Pleas, New Haven County; Robert L ... Munger, Judge ... Action ... upon an ... ...
-
Johnson v. Town Of Watertown
...by the general public will ordinarily be acceptance for the defined width. Hall v. Meriden, 48 Conn. 416, 428; Levine v. Town of West Haven, 120 Conn. 207, 210, 179 A. 841. This is not an inflexible rule, however. Thus this court has held, where a highway sixty-six feet wide was formally of......
-
The Highway and the Right of Way: an Analysis of the Decisional Law in Connecticut Concerning Public, Private and Proposed Roads from Establishment to Abandonment
...1(1944). [28]Meshberg v. Bridgeport City Trust Co., supra note 4. [29]Phillips v. Stamford, 81 Conn. 408 (1908); Levine v. West Haven, 120 Conn. 207 (1935). [30]As the court points out in Meshberg v. Bridgeport City Trust Co., 180 Conn. at . 280, "the approval of a proposed subdivision and ......