Wood v. City of St. Joseph
| Decision Date | 07 December 1931 |
| Citation | 44 S.W.2d 248,226 Mo.App. 615 |
| Parties | WILLIAM WOOD, RESPONDENT, v. CITY OF ST. JOSEPH, APPELLANT |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court of Buchanan County.--Hon. L. A. Vories Judge.
AFFIRMED.
Judgment affirmed.
William C. Myers, Melvin J. Duvall and W. J. Boyd for respondent.
Miles Elliott, Herman Hess and Morte H. Craig for appellant.
Action to recover damages for personal injury alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff as the result of a fall upon sidewalk in the defendant city. Plaintiff recovered judgment and defendant appeals.
Under points and authorities defendant argues that the evidence wholly fails to show any unusual condition on the sidewalk at the place where plaintiff fell; that there was a fatal variance between pleading and proof; that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence; and therefore the court should have given its instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence. The negligence charged in the petition and upon which the cause was submitted is that at the time of the injury "and for many days before that date, there existed, at said point upon said sidewalk, a large and dangerous accumulation of rough, uneven, bumpy, slick and slippery icy and snow, which said dangerous obstruction upon said sidewalk, at said point, covered a space of several feet across, from east to west, and several feet across, from north to south, and was of a thickness varying from one inch to five or six inches; that said accumulation of ice and snow, on said sidewalk at said point, formed and constituted a dangerous obstruction upon said sidewalk, at said point and rendered said sidewalk, at said point, dangerous and not reasonably safe for the use of pedestrians passing along and over the same."
On January 16, 1930, plaintiff alighted from a street car, walked a distance of about three blocks to a place on the sidewalk in front of the doorway of the building known in the record as number 413 Edmond Street, in the defendant city, at which place he slipped, fell, and sustained injury. While walking from the street car to the place where he fell he encountered no snow or ice upon the sidewalks until he came to the sidewalk in front of that building, at which place the entire sidewalk was covered with uneven, rough and slick ice and snow four to six inches in thickness. This condition had existed for a period of not less than one week before plaintiff fell. The sidewalk in question was used daily by many pedestrians. The defendant contends that the evidence fails to show any unusual condition upon the sidewalk at the place in question and that the evidence did show a general condition of ice and snow throughout the city and, therefore, the court should have directed verdict in its behalf.
In support of this insistence the defendant cites the case of Gist v. City of St. Joseph, 220 S.W. 722, and the case of Vonkey v. St. Louis, 117 S.W. 733, 219 Mo. 37.
There was evidence tending to support the theory that the condition...
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