Wolff v. District of Columbia
Supreme Court of the United States
ERROR TO THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. This is an action for damages for injury caused to plaintiff in error (who was also plaintiff below) by an alleged negligent omission of duty by the District of Columbia. On the twenty-seventh of October, 1895, about nine o’clock in the evening, plaintiff had occasion to visit Sangerbund Hall, a house on C street, in the city of Washington.
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ERROR TO THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. This is an action for damages for injury caused to plaintiff in error (who was also plaintiff below) by an alleged negligent omission of duty by the District of Columbia. On the twenty-seventh of October, 1895, about nine o’clock in the evening, plaintiff had occasion to visit Sangerbund Hall, a house on C street, in the city of Washington. On coming out, and for the purpose of approaching a wagon which was standing in the street, he walked rapidly across the sidewalk and, by falling over a block of stone called a stepping-stone or…
1Opinion of the Court
Mr. Justice McKenna,
after making the foregoing statement., delivered the opinion of the, court.
1. The first contention .of plaintiff in error is that the stone was an unlawful obstruction, per se. • This is deduced as a consequence from section 222 of the Revised Statutes of the District of Columbia, which reads as follows:
“No open space, public reservation, or other public grounds in the city of Washington, nor any portion of the public streets and avenues of said city, shall be occupied by any private person or for any private purpose whatever.”
This section cannot be construed to prohibit…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Dubois v. . City of KingstonNew York Court of Appeals · 1886
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- Lefebvre's Admr. v. Central Vermont Railway Co.Supreme Court of Vermont · 1924
- City of Richmond v. LambertSupreme Court of Virginia · 1910
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