Legal Opinion

Fitzgerald v. City of Berlin

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided January 11, 1881PublishedCited by 4 opinions

APPEAL from the Circuit Court for Bond du Lao County. Action to recover damages for personal injuries, alleged to have been received by the plaintiff by means of falling into a hole negligently suffered by the city to be and remain in the sidewalk of one of its principal streets.

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APPEAL from the Circuit Court for Bond du Lao County. Action to recover damages for personal injuries, alleged to have been received by the plaintiff by means of falling into a hole negligently suffered by the city to be and remain in the sidewalk of one of its principal streets. The precise grounds of the action are stated in the complaint as follows: “ That on or about the first day of January, 1878, there was, and had been for a long time prior thereto, to wit, for many years before the-time aforesaid, and had been suffered and permitted to remain, a deep and dangerous hole in and upon…

1Opinion of the CourtLyon, J.

It is very frequently essential to the convenient and proper use of hotels and other business houses, sometimes of dwellings, adjacent to streets in cities and villages, that they *84be constructed with stairways on the street sides, leading downwards to the basements and cellars, or upwards to the front entrances of such buildings. Structures of this character, which do not encroach upon the sidewalks, are lawful. The existence of such a structure, however, imposes upon the municipality in which it is situated the duty of providing-proper safeguards to prevent the happening of accidents, by…

2Cited by4 opinions

  1. Earl v. City of Cedar RapidsSupreme Court of Iowa · 1905
  2. Fitzgerald v. City of BerlinWisconsin Supreme Court · 1885
  3. Richardson v. City of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1892
  4. Fletcher v. City of EllsworthSupreme Court of Kansas · 1894

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