Coan v. Township of Brownstown

This action was brought under the statute to recover damages for injuries occasioned to plaintiff’s threshing engine by the falling of a bridge over which the engine was passing.

It appears that the bridge was built some 18 or 20 years before the accident, but that it had been overhauled and Tebuilt in 1894. It spanned what was called the “Blakely Ditch,” and was about 30 feet long and 16 feet wide. As ■originally built, it had a long stringer, 30 feet in length, on each side, reaching from one abutment to the other. These stringers were heavy, square, continuous timbers; the ends resting upon…