Dye v. Town of Cherry Creek

Defendant urges that the town is not liable, because the statute was intended to cover no such liability as arises from the flooding of lands by the construction of inadequate culverts, but only such liability as results from defects in the highway, interfering with travel along the same; and it relies chiefly on Winchell v. Town of Camillus, 109 App. Div. 341 , 95 N. Y. Supp. 688 , affirmed without opinion in 190 .N. Y. 536, 83 N. E. 1134 . That was an action to recover damages for negligence in permitting a sluiceway across a highway under the traveled part thereof to become filled up, so as to set back surface water accustomed to flow through the same upon the plaintiff’s premises. By a divided court it was held primarily that the failure of the commissioner to remove the rubbish from the sluice, so that the water could pass through, did not constitute negligence for which an action could be maintained against him, and that therefore the town was not liable. Williams, J., also says that the statute applies only to defects in the highway “interfering with travel along the same.”

The case of Barber v. Town of New Scotland, 88 Hun, 522 , 34 N. Y. Supp. 968 , cited in the principal case, was based on a failure of the commissioner to repair and enlarge an old culvert, built many years before, by a stock company. In the opinion, Herrick, J., says:

“This is not a c$tse where, by the building of a drain or sluiceway, waters have been concentrated together and cast upon the plaintiff’s premises.”

Neither of these cases, or any other case, seems necessarily to hold that the town cannot be charged unless the traveled surface of the highway is actually obstructed or interfered with. The occasional dictum that the term “defective highways” was used in the statute solely "in reference to their condition for public travel upon them” seems to have originated in Whitney v. Town of Ticonderoga, 127 N. Y. 40 , 44, 27 N. E. 403 , which is cited as authority for such proposition in the Barber Case, supra. In that case it was contended by the town that the negligence of the commissioner in leaving a road scraper in the highway did not create a “defective highway,” for which the town was liable under the statute, because' the surface of the highway remained undisturbed. ' It was held merely that:

“The impairment of a highway for public use may be no less such by an obstruction placed in it than by a physical disturbance or injury to the bed of the roadway.”

Obviously this authority widens rather than narrows the construction of the statute, so as to impose liability upon the town for the negligence of the commissioner rather than to curtail such liability, and is wholly inapplicable to the case at bar.

In Ashberry v. Town of West Seneca, 58 Hun, 602 , 11 N. Y. Supp. 306 (General Term, Fifth Dept., 1890), the town was held liable for the negligent act of the commissioner in obstructing a ditch and culvert so as to discharge waters on plaintiff’s land. This case has never been discredited, and is not discussed in any of the cases involving negligent acts of omission or acts discretionary in their nature, presumably because a different principle is involved.

[3] Plaintiff’s complaint alleges a culvert, defective-because insufficient, negligently so constructed by the town officers, presumably including the town superintendent of highways, so as to divert a water course upon plaintiff’s land. I think that to this extent he states a cause of action. The statute says “any defect,” and plainly a defect is alleged. The complaint must, however, be dismissed, because it contains no averment that a verified statement of the cause of action was filed with the town clerk within six months after the cause of action accrued, as required by the statute. This is a fatal omission. Olmstead v Town of Pound Ridge, 71 Hun, 25 , 24 N. Y. Supp. 615 : Judgment for defendant accordingly, with costs; but plaintiff may serve an amended complaint on payment of a full bill of costs within 10 days after service of order and notice of entry thereof.