Noonan v. City of Lawrence

• Decision Date: 15 January 1881
• Citation: 130 Mass. 161
• Parties: Mary Noonan v. City of Lawrence
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

130 Mass. 161

Mary Noonan v. City of Lawrence

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

January 15, 1881

Argued November 4, 1880

Essex. Tort for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by a defect in a highway in the defendant city. Writ dated April 18, 1879. Trial in the Superior Court, before Aldrich, J who reported for the consideration of this court the following case:

The plaintiff introduced evidence tending to show that while travelling, in the exercise of due care, on the sidewalk of Oak Street, a public way in the defendant city, in the evening of March 6, 1879, she fell and was hurt; that her fall and consequent injury were caused by a defective and dangerous condition of the way which the defendant had notice of and by reasonable diligence might have remedied, produced by snow and ice which the defendant had negligently permitted to accumulate upon the sidewalk, and to be formed into rough and uneven ridges and slopes by the action of a snow-plough used by the defendant in breaking out paths along the way after snow-falls during the winter, and by the travel of passengers over it. There was evidence of a fall of snow estimated at two inches, on the day of the injury. The plaintiff did not contend, and no evidence was offered tending to show, that there was any fault in the construction of the sidewalk itself, or any defect other than that created by the formation of snow and ice.

On March 18, 1879, the plaintiff caused to be served on the mayor of the defendant city a written notice, signed in her behalf by her attorney, as follows: "This is to notify you that Mary Noonan fell on the sidewalk on the south side of Oak Street, a short distance easterly from Lawrence Street and opposite the premises occupied by Charles Morrison, and belonging as she is informed, though she cannot state positively, to Joseph P. Battles, on Thursday, the 6th day of March, A. D. 1879, at about the hour of six and a half o'clock, P. M., and dislocated her shoulder and suffered a severe shock from the fall. She says that she was travelling on the sidewalk at the time stated, and in the exercise of due care, and that the cause of her fall and consequent injury was the defective and dangerous condition of the way, which the city negligently permitted to be out of repair though bound by law to keep it in repair, and she claims compensation for her said injuries."

The judge ruled that the notice was insufficient to...