The Mayor v. Dodd

• Decision Date: 31 January 1877
• Citation: The Mayor v. Dodd, 58 Ga. 238 (Ga. 1877)
• Parties: The Mayor and Council of the City of Rome, plaintiff in err0r. v. John L. Dodd, defendant in error.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

58 Ga. 238

The Mayor and Council of the City of Rome, plaintiff in err0r. v. John L. Dodd, defendant in error.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

(Atlanta, January Term, 1877.)

Municipal corporations. Roads and Bridges. Before Judge Buchanan. Floyd Superior Court. January Term, 1875.

Reported in the decision.

C. Rowell; Dabney & Fouche; Smith & Branham, for plaintiff in error.

Wright & Featherston, for defendant.

*WarneR, Chief Justice.

This was an action brought by the plaintiff against the defendant to recover damages for injuries received in falling through a hole in a bridge across a ditch, in one of the defendant's streets, which the plaintiff alleged had been negligently and carelessly suffered to remain there, after full knowledge of its dangerous condition. On the trial of the case, the jury, under the charge of the court, found a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of $1,841.00. The defendant made a motion for new trial, on the ground that the verdict was contrary to law, contrary to the evidence, and because the court erred in charging the jury that "if the plaintiff, by ordinary care, could have avoided the consequences to himself caused by the defendant's negligence (if the evidence shows negligence on the part of the defendant), the plaintiff will not be entitled to recover. But if the plaintiff did use ordinary care, and if while in the use thereof, by reason of the defendant's negligence, he sustained injury, the...