Phelps v. Hawley
New York Supreme Court
Appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment rendered against him by the court. The action was brought, to recover the sum of $6,000, against the defendants as commissioners of' highways for the towns of Geneseo and Leicester, in Livingston county, upon a contract, made with the plaintiff by their predecessors in office, for repairing a bridge over the Genesee river between the two towns.
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Appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment rendered against him by the court. The action was brought, to recover the sum of $6,000, against the defendants as commissioners of' highways for the towns of Geneseo and Leicester, in Livingston county, upon a contract, made with the plaintiff by their predecessors in office, for repairing a bridge over the Genesee river between the two towns. It appeared that the bridge bad been originally built in 3 837, upon a public highway, by “ The Leicester Bridge Company” under authority of an act of the legislature passed in that year (Laws 1837, p. 432), and…
1Opinion of the CourtMullin, P. J.
Prior to the passage of the act entitled “An act relating to the joint liability of commissioners of highways,” there was no law regulating the manner in which bridges across streams dividing towns should be erected or repaired.
The Court of Errors, as early as the 17 Johns. R., 439, had held that the duty of building and repairing bridges under the laws of this State devolved on the towns, and not on the counties, as in England. And in Hill v. The Supervisors of Livingston (2 Kern., 52), the Court of Appeals held,- that the duty of building and repairing bridges between towns also devolved on…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Garlinghouse v. . JacobsNew York Court of Appeals · 1864
3Cited by5 opinions
- In re SpierNew York Supreme Court · 1888
- Buffalo Library v. WanamakerNew York Supreme Court · 1937
- Brothers v. PickelNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division · 1879
- Ensign v. Board of SupervisorsNew York Supreme Court · 1881
- Spier v. Commissioners of HighwaysNew York Supreme Court · 1888