Stack v. Portsmouth
Supreme Court of New Hampshire
Case, by John Stack against the city of Portsmouth, for damages happening by a reason of a defect in a highway. The highway was Islington street, and the alleged defect was the absence of a railing on the south side of the street to keep travellers out of a cellar which was outside of and near the street at the corner of Brewery lane. The plaintiff claimed that the lane was a highway : the defendants claimed that it was not.
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Case, by John Stack against the city of Portsmouth, for damages happening by a reason of a defect in a highway. The highway was Islington street, and the alleged defect was the absence of a railing on the south side of the street to keep travellers out of a cellar which was outside of and near the street at the corner of Brewery lane. The plaintiff claimed that the lane was a highway : the defendants claimed that it was not. The court was inclined to the opinion that there was no evidence showing it to be a highway. The plaintiff lived on the lane, and there was no conflict in the evidence…
1Opinion of the CourtBellows, C. J.
The instruction that the defendants were not liable unless the want of a railing on the street rendered the street unsuitable and unsafe for the public travel thereon, was sufficiently favorable to the defendants. It assumed the defendants’ view of the case, that Brewery lane was not a public highway; and that whether that was sufficiently protected or not against this cellar was immaterial, for they must find the street to be insecure, or the defendants were not liable ; and it is manifest that, under these instructions, the jury must have found the street unsafe.
In respect to the other…
2Cited by2 opinions
- Stark v. LancasterSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1876
- Stark v. LancasterSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1876