Pratt v. Department of Highways

GARDEN, JUDGE:

Claimant’s son, John M. Pratt, was operating his father’s 1973 Oldsmobile in a southerly direction on Route 214 in Ka-nawha County on the evening of March 3, 1978, when the right wheels of the car struck a pothole which was filled with water and as such, unobservable. Claimant seeks an award of $377.36 which was the cost of repairing the damage to the car.

John M. Pratt and two companions testified that they had no knowledge of the existence of the pothole; that the speed of the car was between 30 and 40 miles per hour; and that none of them saw the hole prior to impact because…