Langlois v. City of Cohoes

This is an action to recover damages for injury to plaintiff, caused by her falling off a bridge which crosses the south waters of the Mohawk. The plaintiff was nonsuited at the circuit, and appeals.

The bridge was originally private property. On the 10th of March, 1886, the common council of the city voted that this bridge be accepted and declared open to public travel. The bridge is thirty feet wide inside, including the sidewalk, which is five feet wide.

On the northerly side of the bridge there had originally been a railing of three iron pipes running through posts eight feet apart. The first pipe was a foot above the bridge, the second a foot above that, and the third a foot above the second.

The west end of the upper rail of the two which remained rested on a wooden post

The plaintiff had been accustomed to cross this bridge three or four times a day for a few years.

On the evening of March 15th, about seven o’clock, she was going from the city across to the island by this bridge and came to the westerly end. She there met three girls and stopped to talk. While they were talking, two young men, Mort and Nolan, came from the opposite direction and joined them. After talking a little while the plaintiff sat down on the top rail near to its west end. Maria Peat sat down next to her, Mort next, and Nolan next to him. After sitting there a short time the plaintiff got up and went in front and spoke to Mort. She then turned and went back to the place she started from and put her hand on the railing. It bent around to the north and she fell into the river with all the others.

This is the account given by one witness. The plaintiff does not state that she had sat on the rail; but says- that she was leaning against it with her hand upon it and it sprang out and they all fell in.

At the close of the plaintiff’s case the defendant moved for a nonsuit on thirty-one grounds. The court granted the nonsuit on the ground that the defendant’s duty was limited to the erection of a railing which rendered the bridge reasonably safe for public passage and for such things as are incidental to public passage, and that the plaintiff was putting it to a use for which it was not designed. The plaintiff appeals.

As the plaintiff is entitled to the most favorable view, we must assume that she had not been sitting on the rail, but had been standing by it leaning against it and resting her hand thereon. The learned justice in nonsuiting relied upon Stickney v. Salem, 3 Allen, 374 , with the similar cases of Richards v. Enfield, 13 Gray, 344 ; Orcutt v. Kittery P't Br. Co., 53 Me., 500 ; Stinson v. Gardiner, 42 id., 248; Peck v. Ellsworth, 36 id., 393.

Now in regard to the cases in these states it is to be noticed that the liability of towns is statutory, while with us the liability is held to arise at common law.

To show the difference, we may refer to Stinson v. Gardiner, ut supra, holding that where children used a part of the public road for play the town is not liable for injury sustained by defects in the road. With this we may compare Kunz v. Troy, 104 N. Y., 344 ; 5 N. Y. State Rep., 642, where the city was held liable for injury to a child playing in the street caused by the fall of a counter placed on the sidewalk for sale. In McGuire v. Spence, 91 N. Y., 303 , this difference between the law of some other states and that of our own in respect to highways is mentioned.

How the doctrine which holds that the same duty of a city which exists as to travelers exists also as to a child playing in the street applies by analogy to this case. The man who, instead of walking with unresting and undeviating step across a bridge, pauses for a moment and rests against the railing does not lose his right to protection against negligence any more than does the child who plays in the street instead of walking sedately home.

In Orcutt v. Kittery P't Br. Co., ut supra, the captain of a company to which plaintiff belonged called a halt upon a bridge. Plaintiff leaned his back against the railing to rest and wait for further orders. As he sprang forward to take his place in the ranks, the rotten railing broke and he fell off the bridge.

It was held that it was for passengers only that the corporation was obliged to maintain the railing, and that he could not recover ; that his use of the railing was unauthorized. If that is the law of this state the nonsuit was proper, but we think that such is not our law.

The railing of the bridge should be sufficient to meet all those incidental uses to which it would reasonably be put by persons crossing. We say nothing about sitting on the rail. We speak merely of that leaning against it which is the commoh act of a person stopping a moment for any purnose on the sidewalk of a bridge.

The learned justice excluded the idea of contributory negligence and placed the nonsuit on the ground that the defendant was not liable because the plaintiff was putting the railing to an unauthorized use. We cannot agree with this view.

The defendant urges further that by statute the streets of the ■city must be sixty feet wide, and that this bridge is only thirty and therefore the city had no right to accept it. Evidently the statute cited refers not to bridges, but to streets and highways strictly so called, because it speaks of opening, working, laying out and grading; expressions not applied to a bridge.

The defendant further urges that defendant had no right to construct or keep a bridge over this branch of the Mohawk and it would have been a trespass in going on the bridge to make repairs. This position rests on the cases of Carpenter v. Cohoes, 81 N. Y., 21 , and Veeder v. Little Falls, 100 id., 343. But these are quite different from this. There it was held that the city was not bound to go upon an approach to a bridge and put a railing thereon, where the approach and the bridge were state property.

How, in this case, Adams built this bridge in 1876 from an island owned by him to vacant land on the west side of the south branch of the Mohawk. He sold building lots on his island and houses were built thereon. People used the bridge in crossing from his island to the other part of the city.

The bridge was within the city limits. In 1886, as above

Whether the state might not cause this bridge to be removed we need not say. It had been allowed to remain some twelve years. And had been used by the public during that time.

The case comes within that of Sewell v. Cohoes, 75 N. Y., 45 .

Judgment reversed, new trial granted, costs to abide the event

Landon and Mayham, JJ, concur.