Tobey v. City of Hudson

The principal questions raised in this case are, whether the verdict was against the weight of

It is not to be questioned that a city may be liable for injuries occasioned by an accumulation of ice upon its sidewalks, So it is said in Kinney v. Troy ( 108 N. Y., 567 ; 14 N. Y. State Rep., 15), on the authority of Todd v. Troy ( 61 N. Y. 506 ). Such, too, was the doctrine of Pumfrey v. Saratoga ( 104 N. Y., 459 ; 5 N. Y. State Rep., 802), and of Elgie v. Troy (affirming 37 Hun, 641 ). But in the Kinney Case, the court seems to use the word “ accumulation ” as meaning a ridge or unevenness; for they say that as the ice was all in one sheet, the plaintiff should have been nonsuited.

In Kaveny v. Troy ( 108 N. Y,, 571 ; 14 N. Y. State Rep., 18), decided at the same term, the court were not willing to say whether the Todd Case should be followed to its full extent. And they remarked that snow could be removed without serious difficulty ; but that ice from the drip of a roof was a different matter ; that in severe winters, it was difficult to remove it. And having shown that the plaintiff might have fallen on ice formed by the drip of the roof, they held that it was not reasonable that the city should be required to remove it, and that the city was not liable. They also held that the freezing of the night and next day before the accident, could not have failed to form a new coating of ice.

That this must have made a new coating over the ice which had been formed by the drip; that the city was not bound to remove that new coating; that the accident might ¡have come from this natural cause, and plaintiff should have been nonsuited on that ground also. In Taylor v. Yonkers ( 105 N. Y., 202 ; 7 N. Y. State Rep., 332), sand and .gravel had lain on the sidewalk, which fact tended to show negligence. On the night before the accident, rain fell and froze "and the whole city was slippery. The plaintiff fell on the sloping ice which had formed on the sand and gravel. The court held the city not liable, because it was just as possible that plaintiff would have slipped if the place had been level.

So far as can be ascertained, these cases show the present -condition of the doctrine as to icy sidewalks. And we may also notice that in the case first cited the court said “something more than a slippery sidewalk must be shown.” How, inasmuch as there has never been any question that notice (or implied notice, so called) must be shown, the remark of the court .did not apply to the necessity of showing notice. The court must have meant that the city, even with notice, would not be liable merely on the ground that "the sidewalk was slippery.

Why a city should be liable for damage caused by a ridge of ice, and not for that caused by a smooth piece of ice, we

There was evidence in this case tending to show that the. deceased fell on old ice, rounded up in the centre; frozen, “swash-like,” depth two to two and one-half inches; rain and snow frozen together; a big chunk of ice probably two-feet long and six inches wide. These are expressions used. by witnesses. There is evidence that this ridge had been there several days.

There is a conflict of evidence on the question whether, on the day of the accident, there had been a fall of snow, sleet and rain, which had frozen and had made the sidewalks-generally slippery.

In view of this evidence the defendant asked the court to-charge that if the jury believe that the sidewalks of the city were made generally slippery the evening of the accident,, by reason of a fall of sleet or snow that day, so that the. sidewalk front of Gray’s would have been slippery without regard to the ice previously formed, the defendant was not. liable, and the verdict must be for the defendant. The court, declined so to charge, but left it to the jury.

Now, in the Taylor Case and in the Kavery Case we-understand the court of appeals to hold substantially this r that if there has been an old obstruction, be it of sand or ice or snow, and if then- there be a fall of sleet or rain, which freezes and makes everything slippery that it covers, including the old obstruction, and then if a person slips-' on the old obstruction, now covered with the newly formed coating of ice, it cannot be said that the city was bound to remove this new coating. And also in such a case, it is not right to assume that the person’s fall was caused by the old obstruction, even though that was a possibly concurring cause; that the plaintiff must fail if he does not-show that the accident was due to that cause, for which defendant was responsible. Searles v. Manhattan R. R. Co., 101 N. Y., 661 .

It seems to us that this request of the defendant was directed to the proposition thus established by the courts. And that the refusal to charge this, and the leaving the matter to the jury, justified them in finding a verdict for the plaintiff, even if they were satisfied from the evidence that Gray’s sidewalk would have been slippery owing to the sleet-which fell that day, and without regard to the ice previously formed. Wé refer to the discussion in the opinion in the Taylor Case at pages 208, 209.

Here, we think, there was error which may have prejudiced the defendant. The error is quite natural, for in the Todd Case there had been a recent fall of snow, although.

Supposing that there had been, prior to the day of the accident, a “ chunk” or ridge of snow and ice. If, on that day, sleet fell, covering that ridge and the rest of the sidewalk in the city with a slippery coating, how can it be determined that the ridge had anything to do with the fall of the deceased ? As the court said in the Taylor Case: “ It is quite possible that the slope of the walk had something to do with it. It is equally possible that it did not.”

If the sleet of that day covered over the old ridge, then it may have been immaterial as to the accident, whether that ridge was of a slippery material, like ice, or of a material not slippery like sand. As it was covered with a coating of ice, one who slipped would slip on that ice. And that coating of ice was a recent deposit for the failure to-remove, which the city could not be liable.

If the jury had believed that by that fall of sleet that day, the sidewalks, including that in front of Gray’s, were-made generally slippery, that slipperiness would have been “ a sufficient, certain and operating cause of the fall.”

There are some other requests bearing on the same general matter which, perhaps, these recent decisions required the court to charge. But it is unnecessary to discuss-them, since we think that the Taylor Case and the Kavery Case made it the right of the defendant to have the charge given which we have discussed.

Judgment and order reversed, new trial granted, costs to-abide event.

Landon, J., concurs; Ingalls, J., not sitting.