Smith v. City of St. Louis

KAROHL Presiding Judge.

Defendant City of St. Louis appeals from a judgment entered on a $75,000 jury verdict for plaintiff pedestrian Rita Smith. Smith was injured when she stepped backward and to her left into a hole in the sidewalk cut out around a fire hydrant on the north side of Minerva in the City of St. Louis. On appeal defendant contends only that plaintiff was contributorily negligent as a matter of law. We affirm.

At the time of the casualty plaintiff lived one house east of the location of the fire hydrant and on the same side of the street. She was familiar with the area in…