DeCapua v. City of New Haven

Full title: LOUIS DeCAPUA vs. CITY OF NEW HAVEN

Court: Superior Court New Haven County

Date published: Jun 22, 1937

5 Conn. Supp. 193 (Conn. Super. Ct. 1937)

Opinion

File No. 52246

FitzGerald, Foote FitzGerald, Attorneys for the Plaintiff.

Edward R. Brumley; David Rivkin, Attorneys for the Defendant.

The cause of action stated in the complaint against the City of New Haven and The Trustees of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company is one for injuries sustained by reason of a claimed defect in the planking on a bridge over the tracks of the defendant railroad. The defendant City demurred to the complaint. Held: Since Section 1420 of the General Statutes, Revision of 1930 authorizes actions for damages caused by a defective bridge only against "the party bound to keep it in repair"; and as Section 3675 of the General Statutes, Revision of 1930, imposes the duty of keeping in repair "the surface of the highway, including the planking or other surface material of the highway upon such structure" on the Railroad Company; and as there is no common-law liability on a municipality for such damages, therefore the demurrer is well founded and is sustained.

MEMORANDUM FILED JUNE 22, 1937.

INGLIS, J.

The only cause of action stated in the complaint is one for injuries sustained by reason of a claimed defect in the planking on a bridge over the tracks of the defendants, The Trustees of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company.

Section 3675, General Statutes, Revision of 1930, imposes the duty of keeping in repair "the surface of the highway, including the planking or other surface material of the highway upon such structure," on the Railroad Company.

Section 1411 of the General Statutes, Revision of 1930, imposes the duty of repairing highways and bridges on the municipality only when such duty shall not belong to some particular person.

It is clear therefore, that the obligation to keep the highway in repair at the place where the plaintiff was injured was on the Railroad Company and not on the City of New Haven. Coletti vs. Bridgeport, 103 Conn. 117.

Inasmuch as Section 1420 of the General Statutes, Revision of 1930, authorizes actions for damages caused by a defective road or bridge only against "the party bound to keep it in repair" and inasmuch as there is no common-law liability on a municipality for such damages, it is clear that this plaintiff has no cause of action against the City of New Haven.