Town of Union v. Heflin

• Decision Date: 21 April 1913
• Docket Number: 16,042
• Citation: 104 Miss. 669,61 So. 652
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: TOWN OF UNION v. MRS. MAUDE HEFLIN

61 So. 652

104 Miss. 669

TOWN OF UNION v. MRS. MAUDE HEFLIN

No. 16,042

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 21, 1913

APPEAL from the circuit court of Newton county, HON. C. L. DOBBS Judge.

Suit by Maude Heflin against the town of Union. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals.

The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.

Reversed.

J. F N. Huddleston, for appellant.

Code municipalities have no common law duties; they are creatures of the statute entirely and as much a part and parcel of the sovereign as the county. If liable at all, it can only be for the willful neglect of a duty, which they are charged with by law, the statue. 1 Harris' Damages by Corporations, secs 79-81, pp. 91 and 92; Booze v. Yazoo City, 49 So. 518.

Code towns are not accident insurers to all persons who make use of their sidewalks. The calamity complained of in the case at bar was purely and simply an, accident for which the defendant town was, in no way responsible under the law. A municipality is not liable for an injury suffered from a defect in a street of which it has no knowledge, actual or constructive; and it is not chargeable with constructive knowledge of a defect of such recent origin that the municipality was not negligent in failing to discover and remedy it before the injury. Greenwood v. Harris, 89 Miss. 121, 42 So. 538.

We doubt seriously whether a Code municipality can be held for such an injury under any circumstances, but most assuredly under the facts of the case at bar, the defendant town cannot be held. City of Vicksburg v. Hennessy, 54 Miss. 391; Code 1906, sec. 3330.

It is time that the court authorities put its ban upon the prevalence of these vexatious suits against the state's youngest daughters for such trivial accidents and which the town fathers find cheaper to pay a small judgment than to appeal.

J. R. Byrd, for appellee.

The appellee, Mrs. Maude Heflin, sued the town of Union for two thousand dollars damages for personal injuries received by falling through a defective sidewalk in said town. The question of the liability of the town was, under proper instructions, submitted to the jury; so, also, was the question of the amount of damages submitted to the jury. There is no error in this regard, unless it be the smallness of the verdict returned by the jury. In my judgment a fifteen hundred dollar judgment would not be excessive in this case, but the jury, on the other hand, thought that one hundred and seventy-five dollars was sufficient. This town should "thank God and take courage."

OPINION

COOK, J.

Mrs Heflin sued the town of Union for damages resulting from a fall upon an alleged negligently constructed sidewalk of the town. The evidence shows that the sidewalk in question was in the process of construction, and unfinished, at the time of the accident, but that part of the walk where the accident occurred was probably completed, and the public using...