Stoehr v. Town of Red Springs
| Decision Date | 06 December 1927 |
| Citation | 216 N.W. 487,195 Wis. 399 |
| Parties | STOEHR v. TOWN OF RED SPRINGS. |
| Court | Wisconsin Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from a Judgment of the Circuit Court for Shawano County; Edgar V. Werner, Circuit Judge. Reversed.
Action by Mike Stoehr to recover damages for injury to a cow caused by a defective highway. From a judgment against the town of Red Springs, the town appeals.Winter & Winter, of Shawano, for appellant.
Dillett & Fischer, of Shawano, for respondent.
This appeal raises the single question whether it was the duty of the county or of the appellant town to maintain the highway here in question.
The county board adopted a resolution which changed the location of county trunk A in Shawano county so that the portion of the road where the cow was injured was made a part of that county trunk highway. Subdivision (4) of section 83.01 of the Statutes (St. 1925) provides that the county clerk shall file with the state highway commission a copy of the county road map
There was no direct proof that the highway commission had ever consented to this change in the location of county trunk A. The trial court found that the highway commission had not consented to such change, and concluded that the road at the place of injury was still a town highway, and that the town was liable to the plaintiff in damages.
[1] The learned trial judge was in error in concluding that the county was not liable unless all statutory steps had been taken which are essential to make the highway in question a part of the system of prospective state highways.
Counties were given the power to establish county roads long before the present statute was passed providing for a system of state trunk highways and prospective state highways. Ever since the passage of chapter 46, Laws of 1872, counties have been liable for injuries sustained on roads that have been adopted as a part of a system of county highways. This provision was made a part of section 1339 of the statutes by the revision of 1878, where it was provided that--
“If such damage shall happen by reason of the insufficiency or want of repairs of a bridge, sluiceway or road, which any county shall have adopted as a county road, and is by law bound to keep in repair, such county shall be liable therefor, and the claim for damages shall be against the county.”
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...travel is a governmental function. Bruhnke v. La Crosse, 1914, 155 Wis. 485, 144 N.W. 1100, 50 L.R.A.,N.S. 1147; Stoehr v. Town of Red Springs, 1928, 195 Wis. 399, 216 N.W. 487, 219 N.W. 98; Larsen v. Kewaunee County, 1932, 209 Wis. 204, 244 N.W. 578. It is also a governmental function for ......
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...a failure properly to maintain a highway, exists in the absence of some statutory enactment imposing such liability. Stoehr v. Red Springs, 195 Wis. 399, 216 N. W. 487, 219 N. W. 98. Prior to the enactment of said chapter 22, as well as at the time of the accident, liability of a county for......
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