Valente v. United States

• Citation: 264 F.2d 800
• Decision Date: 06 April 1959
• Docket Number: No. 13664.,13664.
• Parties: Martha VALENTE, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

264 F.2d 800 (1959)

Martha VALENTE, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 13664.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

April 6, 1959.

Emanuel Nadlin, Dayton, Ohio, for appellant.

H. Donald Hawkins, Dayton, Ohio (Hugh K. Martin, U. S. Atty., on the brief), for appellee.

Before MARTIN, Chief Judge, and THORNTON and O'SULLIVAN, District Judges.

PER CURIAM.

On February 8, 1955, plaintiff slipped on an icy sidewalk in front of the post office in the City of Xenia, Ohio. Suit was brought against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1346, 2671-2680, charging that the custodians of the post office had been guilty of negligence in failing to keep the mentioned sidewalk in a safe condition and that such custodians were guilty of positive acts of negligence which resulted in plaintiff's injuries. The case was tried before then District Judge Lester L. Cecil, without a jury. On filing findings of fact and conclusions of law, Judge Cecil dismissed plaintiff's action.

For some days prior to the plaintiff's fall on the sidewalk, it had intermittently snowed and thawed. As a result, ice had gathered on the sidewalk in front of the post office. This walk had been cleaned off by a post office employee who threw the shovelled snow on either side of the sidewalk in question. On the side of the walk nearest the post office, the largest amount of snow had been thrown — behind a retaining wall. On the day before the accident, the sidewalk in question had been cleared of ice and snow but in the afternoon of that day, due to rising temperatures, water from the melting snow on the post office side of the walk trickled across the portion of the walk in question. Freezing temperatures that night and the following morning caused ice to again form on the walk. At 6:00 A.M., on February 8, the day of the accident, a post office employee again cleaned the walk of snow but was unable to completely remove the ice that had formed thereon. This employee then spread about thirty-five or forty pounds of salt over the area in question. Shortly prior to 11:00 A.M., it began to snow again and there was a thin covering of snow upon the walk, the ice on which had not completely melted or disappeared. At about 11:45 A.M., the plaintiff, approaching the post office on business, was crossing this walk when she slipped and fell, suffering injuries.

There was evidence that the area of the walk in question had become pocked or pitted by reason of natural wear and tear, and through previous cleanings of the walk with various tools. Plaintiff claimed that the walk was thus out of repair and dangerous.

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