Stone v. Inhabitants of the Attleborough

• Decision Date: 31 October 1885
• Citation: 140 Mass. 328,4 N.E. 570
• Parties: STONE v. INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF ATTLEBOROUGH.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

140 Mass. 328

4 N.E. 570

STONE

v.INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF ATTLEBOROUGH.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

Filed October, 1885.

This was an action of tort brought by the plaintiff, a night watchman employed by certain merchants and shop-keepers in the defendant town, to recover damages for personal injuries caused by an alleged defect in the public highway of the town. At the trial the plaintiff claimed that the defendant town was liable under chapter 49, § 95, Pub.St., which provides substantially that towns may be liable for injuries received by travelers, who, without notice, stray from the public highway upon ways entering upon and uniting with such ways. It appeared that the place where the plaintiff received his injuries was in the middle of a broad sidewalk, the whole of which was used by travelers, and which to all appearances was part of the public highway. No monuments marked the line of the way. The defect complained of was faulty construction of the sidewalk in building it on too steep a slope, and with a smooth surface, so that, especially when it was wet, a person could not safely stand or walk on it. The plaintiff offered evidence that Washington street was the principal business street of North Attleborough, a village in Attleborough, and running north and south through said village; that on the westerly side of said street was a block of stores called “Guild's Block,” 150 feet in length; that for the whole length of said block extending from the building to the curbstone was a concrete sidewalk 13.4 feet wide, the surface being smooth, the pitch or slope being 1 1/8 inches to the foot; that Washington street was an ancient highway relocated and laid out as a town way by the town in 1872, and that the westerly line of said location ran through said concrete sidewalk in a line parallel with the curbstone, and 5 feet west of it, leaving 8.4 feet of space between the line of the location of the way and the building; that the sidewalk was built seven or eight years ago, the town setting the curbstone, and the abutters laying the concrete. The sidewalk was wet at the time of the accident, it having snowed several days before. The defendant claimed that there was no defect, as the grade was a reasonable and proper one, and that the place of the accident was entirely outside of the location of the highway, and that he had failed to show that he was traveling upon any way where the defendant was obliged to provide...