Veazie v. City of Rockland

• Decision Date: 30 November 1878
• Citation: 68 Me. 511
• Parties: ABIEZER VEAZIE v. CITY OF ROCKLAND.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

68 Me. 511

ABIEZER VEAZIE v. CITY OF ROCKLAND.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

November 30, 1878

ON REPORT.

CASE for injuries from defective highway. Writ dated April 6 1877. Plea, not guilty, with a brief statement that the defendant did not notify the municipal officers within sixty days after the injury was alleged to have been sustained, by letter or otherwise in writing, setting forth his claim for damages and specifying the nature of his injuries and the nature and location of the defect which caused such injury.

The case was reported to the law court to determine whether a sufficient notice was given to the municipal officers as required by the statute of 1876, or whether notice was waived.

The injury was alleged to have been received on May 8, 1876. The plaintiff called on the mayor the next morning after, and gave him a verbal notice and a full description of the defect in the street and the nature of the injury; and by the request of the mayor he informed the street commissioner of the injury and defect; the mayor advised the plaintiff to have a competent person treat his horse, which plaintiff did. A notice, dated Rockland, July 22, 1876, signed by the plaintiff, and of the following tenor, was directed to the mayor of the city of Rockland: " This is to notify you that I claim damages for injuries received by my horse through a defect which existed in a certain highway, to wit Scott street in said city of Rockland, on the 8th day of May A. D. 1876. Said highway was rendered defective by reason of ballast stones lying therein, and my said horse was injured by stepping upon said stones with his off or right hind foot losing his footing on account of the roughness, unevenness and slipperiness of said stones, thereby spreading his hind legs, wrenching, straining and laming the same, and wholly unfitting him for use or work, in which condition said horse hath ever since been and now is, to my great damage, to wit: the damage of five hundred dollars."

Also the following, directed to the mayor and city council and signed by the plaintiff: " City of Rockland, to Abiezer Veazie, Dr. 1876. May 8th. To damage suffered by defective highway, to wit: loss of horse through injuries received by said defective highway in said Rockland, $500. And the claimant proposes, if agreeable to your body, to refer the claim, as regards amount of damages, to three or more disinterested men." Indorsed thereon was this: " In board of aldermen, September 12, 1876, read and...