Wadleigh v. Inhabitants of Mt. Vernon

• Decision Date: 05 April 1883
• Citation: 75 Me. 79
• Parties: ALTON M. WADLEIGH v. INHABITANTS OF MOUNT VERNON.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

75 Me. 79

ALTON M. WADLEIGH v. INHABITANTS OF MOUNT VERNON.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

April 5, 1883

ON EXCEPTIONS and motion to set aside the verdict, from superior court.

An action to recover damages sustained by the plaintiff by an injury to his person and to his horse, caused by a defect in a way in the town of Mount Vernon.

The accident occurred September 30, 1879; the writ was dated June 1, 1880; the plea was general issue, and brief statement denying that the defendants had notice of the defect, and alleging that no legal notice was given of the injury and defect, and claim for damages, and that the plaintiff had knowledge of the alleged defect before the date of the alleged injury.

The following is a copy of the notice given by the plaintiff to the defendants in compliance with stat. 1877, c. 206:

" To the town officers of the town of Mount Vernon, in the county of Kennebec, and state of Maine.

You are hereby notified that I, Alton M. Wadleigh, of Belgrade, on the thirtieth day of September, A. D. 1879, at about the hour of six and one-half o'clock in the afternoon of that day was thrown violently from his carriage, to wit: wagon, and seriously injured in the thigh, and internally injured in his right lung, and otherwise injured, by being violently shaken up and jarred in his fall to the ground, caused by his horse stepping into a defect, to wit: a hole in the highway at the small water course which crosses the bog road at a point about seventy-five rods easterly from the Ingraham brook bridge in said Mount Vernon; said defect being a hole in the middle of said bog road at said water course, about four feet long, two to three feet deep, and four to eight inches wide his horse was also at same time violently thrown to the ground, and received serious injury in the right fore leg and foot, and shoulder, for which injury to himself and horse, the said Alton M. Wadleigh claims the sum of five thousand dollars ($5000) damages therefor. And you are hereby notified to settle and make payment of the same forthwith, October 6, 1879.

Alton M. Wadleigh,

By E. W. Whitehouse, his attorney."

The verdict was for the plaintiff for $254.20.

The material facts are stated in the opinion.

E. W. Whitehouse, for the plaintiff.

Bean and Beane, for the defendants, contended that a notice specifying the nature of an injury to the person, should name the organs or parts of the body injured, as was done in this case by naming the thigh and lung. It is to enable the town officers to investigate and ascertain the facts.

The principal personal injury for which the plaintiff claimed to recover at the trial, was not named in the notice, nor in the plaintiff's declaration. Of such an injury the defendants had no notice nor intimation. Evidence of such an injury did not sustain any allegation in plaintiff's declaration and should have been excluded.

BARROWS J.

The only point insisted on in the exceptions is, the objection to the admission of testimony respecting an injury to one of the plaintiff's testicles, offered and admitted under a declaration, alleging among other things that he was " thrown violently to the ground and received severe contusions, bruises and injuries about his head, side, chest thighs, legs and arms, and was severely injured internally, from effects of which injuries he … has suffered much, both in body and mind … and has been rendered permanently disabled in his body," & c. and under a written notice seasonably given to the municipal officers, setting out among other things that he was " thrown violently from his...