Heiss v. Lancaster
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Appeal, No. 311, Jan. T., 1901, by plaintiff, from judgment of C. P. Lancaster Co., Aug. T., 1898, No. 4, on verdict for defendant in case of Levius Heiss v. City of Lancaster. Trespass to recover damages for personal injuries. Before Landis, J. At the trial it appeared that on August 9,189T, at five o’clock in the morning, plaintiff slipped and fell in a deep open gutter between a street crossing and the curbstone.
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Appeal, No. 311, Jan. T., 1901, by plaintiff, from judgment of C. P. Lancaster Co., Aug. T., 1898, No. 4, on verdict for defendant in case of Levius Heiss v. City of Lancaster. Trespass to recover damages for personal injuries. Before Landis, J. At the trial it appeared that on August 9,189T, at five o’clock in the morning, plaintiff slipped and fell in a deep open gutter between a street crossing and the curbstone. The court admitted, under exception on a cross-examination of two of plaintiff’s witnesses, testimony to the effect that many of the gutters and street crossings in the city of…
1Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Mr. Justice Mitchell,
The first and second assignments of error are to.the admission of evidence that other gutter crossings in the city were in a similar condition to the one where the accident occurred. The evidence, while not weighty, was competent. A general or common method of performance of a common duty may never*262theless be negligent, but tbe natural inference is to the contrary. Thus the usual and. common practice of travelers to stop at a certain place before crossing a railroad is evidence that it is a proper place to stop. The witnesses in the present case had given…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Canavan v. City of Oil CitySupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1898
3Cited by4 opinions
- Lewis v. QuinnSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1954
- Stewart v. the City of Idaho FallsIdaho Supreme Court · 1940
- Albrecht v. Erie CitySupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1920
- Roslik v. PittsburghSuperior Court of Pennsylvania · 1944