Osterhout v. Town of Bethlehem
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
Appeal by the defendant, The Town of Bethlehem, from a judgment of the Supreme Court in favor of the plaintiff, entered in the office of the clerk of the county of Albany on the 3d day of April, 1900, upon the verdict of a jury for $700, and also from an order entered in said clerk’s office on the 12th day of April, 1900, denying the defendant’s motion for a new trial made upon the minutes.
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Appeal by the defendant, The Town of Bethlehem, from a judgment of the Supreme Court in favor of the plaintiff, entered in the office of the clerk of the county of Albany on the 3d day of April, 1900, upon the verdict of a jury for $700, and also from an order entered in said clerk’s office on the 12th day of April, 1900, denying the defendant’s motion for a new trial made upon the minutes. Upon the 30th day of March, 1899, plaintiff was injured by falling from his wagon upon a highway in the defendant town. The main contention upon the trial was upon the question of the negligence of the…
1Opinion of the Court
Smith, J. :
The test of defendant’s liability is the negligence of the highway commissioner, which, under the law before it was amended, would have subjected him to liability for this injury. This hole or rut, as far as appears from the evidence, was caused by the natural wear of wagon wheels into the soft clay soil in the spring of the year. While some of the questions put by counsel seem to imply that there was a contributing cause in its relation to the sluiceway under the róad, no such inference is legitimate from the evidence in the case. I doubt if upon country roads a rut caused mainly…
2Cited by8 opinions
- French v. StateNew York Court of Claims · 1923
- Gibbons v. City of New YorkCity of New York Municipal Court · 1951
- Aldi v. S. A. Scullen Co.Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1936
- Marttas v. StateNew York Court of Claims · 1928
- White v. StateNew York Court of Claims · 1920
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