Stoors v. City of Denver

• Decision Date: 12 October 1903
• Citation: 19 Colo.App. 159,73 P. 1094
• Parties: STOORS v. CITY OF DENVER.
• Court: Colorado Court of Appeals

73 P. 1094

19 Colo.App. 159

STOORS v. CITY OF DENVER.

Court of Appeals of Colorado

October 12, 1903

Error to District Court, Arapahoe County.

Action by Alfred Stoors against the city of Denver. From a judgment of dismissal, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Under a charter providing that a city should not be liable for injuries received on its streets or public places, unless the injured person should notify the city in writing "when where, and how the injuries occurred," a notice stating that plaintiff "slipped and fell on the public highway" is defective in failing to state how--i.e through what defect in the walk--the injuries occurred.

T.J O'Donnell and Milton Smith (R.T. McNeal, of counsel), for plaintiff in error.

J.M Ellis, S.L. Carpenter, Henry A. Lindsley, and Charles R. Brock, for defendant in error.

GUNTER J.

Action for personal injuries through defective sidewalk in defendant city. General demurrer to complaint sustained. Judgment of dismissal, and therefrom this appeal.

The complaint contained a copy of the notice advising defendant of the accident. The sufficiency of this notice is the sole question. If insufficient, the demurrer was properly sustained, and the judgment below should be affirmed. The charter of defendant provided "Before the city of Denver shall be liable for damages to any person injured upon any of the streets, avenues, alleys, sidewalks, or other public places of the city, the person so injured, or some one in his behalf, shall, within thirty days after receiving such injuries, give the mayor or city council notice in writing of such injury, stating fully in such notice when, where, and how the injuries occurred and the extent thereof." The following notice was given: "This is to notify you that on December 14th, 1898, at about 10 o'clock p.m., Alfred Stoors, while going to his home, slipped and fell on the public highway of Denver, on the sidewalk bounding the southeast side of California and Seventeenth, about 160 feet northeasterly of the southwest corner of California and Seventeenth streets. *** [ Here follows description of injuries.] This notice is given and intended as the notice required by an act of the Legislature of the state of Colorado. *** Dated at Denver, Colorado, this 11th day of January, A.D.1899. Alfred Stoors." It is necessary to consider but one of the objections urged to this notice; that is, that it fails to state how the injury occurred. One of the substantial reasons for requiring this notice is that the city may be properly advised in what its alleged negligence consists. In possession of this information recently after the accident, it can investigate whether liability exists, and, if necessary, prepare for trial. Further, by the notice, the accident, while it is recent, is assigned to a particular cause, which cannot, after the 30 days, be changed should the complaining party be so disposed. Plaintiff has six years from the accident within which to sue, and if the law did not require, soon after the accident, disclosure of its alleged cause, when the suit should be brought it might be almost impossible for the city to show the state of the walk, and more difficult, perhaps, that it did not have actual or constructive notice thereof. This accident occurred December 15th, and in October of the following year this action was instituted. Then it was the city was first advised that the defect charged was the presence of ice and snow. It can be readily realized how difficult at that time it might have been to ascertain the condition of the walk as to snow and ice in the preceding December, how long such condition had existed, and other facts pertinent to liability. The charter requires that the notice shall state fully how the injuries occurred. Whatever meaning "how" may have in other connections, here we think, because of the manifest purposes for which the statute was...