County Commissioners v. Baker

Stewart, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Through some neglect in the repair of a bridge, on one of the public highways of Baltimore County, a severe injury was sustained by one of the appellees. Suit for the recovery of damages for the negligence, was instituted against the Commissioners of that county, and the only question involved, is whether as the law stood at the time, they were answerable. It is conceded to be the established law of the State, that the Commissioners are liable, if they possessed the power and had control of the means to have had the bridge repaired.

Duckett’s Case, 20 Md., 468 ; Gibson’s Case, 36 Md., 229 . The counsel for the Commissioners have relied upon the Act of 1814, ch. '214, approved the 11th of April, 1814, and to go into effect upon its passage, which was anterior to the accident, occurring the 29th of that month, as repealing the antecedent local legislation for that county, in relation to the appointment of road supervisors, and the control given to them over the roads and bridges, which by the 2nd section of the Act, was not to take place until January, 1816;' and that this provision had the effect until that time, at least, to disable the Commissioners from the exercise of authority over the same, and consequently to relieve them of any responsibility for the injury at the time of its occurrence. There is no occasion in the decision of this case, to construe the effect to be given to the provisions of this Act, or to ascertain therefrom, to what extent, or in what respect, if any, they did then or thereafter, abridge or affect the powers, duties and responsibilities of the County Commissioners over the roads and bridges in that county.— Assuming that the Act did, immediately upon its passage, and without reservation, repeal the antecedent local public law of the county in regard to the repair of roads and bridges therein ; and by its 2nd section has postponed the ⁹ appointment- of road supervisors thereunder, until January, 1876, it does not follow by any means, that, during the interval between its approval and said postponement, the powers and duties of the Commissioners were suspended in all respects, over the roads and bridges, and their necessary repair; and that they are to be treated as absolved from responsibility on that account. The provisions of the 28th Article of the Code, amended by the Act of 1865, oh. 85, are not repealed, and they operate as the general public law, when not in