Mayor of Baltimore v. Healey

Urner, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The only question to be determined on this appeal is raised by an exception to the refusal of the trial Court to- direct a verdict for the defendant municipality on the ground that the evidence in the case was legally insufficient to entitle the plaintiff to recover. The suit was for damages on account of an injury sustained by the plaintiff in falling at night over some sheathing boards, lying beside a lot of conduit pipes on the southern sidewalk of Barney street, near its intersection with Light street, in the City of Baltimore. About one-half of the width of the sidewalk was occupied by the materials just mentioned.

The pipes were stacked to a height of five feet or more, for a distance of about ten feet along the curb, and extended three feet upon the sidewalk. There were about six of the sheathing boards, each being a foot wide, one and a half or two inches thick, and from six to eight feet long, and they were piled along the inner side of the stack of conduit pipes. It was testified that there was no warning light on the pipes or boards at the time of the accident. The street light at the nearest corner was sufficient to disclose the presence of the conduit pipes, but it did not reveal the low pile of boards lying in the dark shadow which the conduits cast on the pavement.

Under such conditions the boards were undoubtedly a source of danger at night to pedestrians using due care. There is no question of contributory negligence in the case. The contention is that there is no evidence legally sufficient to warrant the inference that the boards over which the plaintiff fell were deposited at the place of the accident by the City’s employees, or that the City had notice of the obstruction in