Negligence : Personal Injury – Municipal Defendant – Notice

Where a plaintiff, who was injured when she fell in a water meter hole that was located in a grassy strip next to a street, challenged the dismissal of her personal injury suit against the city, the dismissal was based on the plaintiff’s failure to give notice required by a statute for “any injuries growing out of any defect in the condition of any bridge, boulevard, street, sidewalk or thoroughfare” in the city, and the dismissal is reversed because the appellate court finds that the hole and grass strip was not part of a street, sidewalk or thoroughfare, so notice was not required.

Grassy strip

Dissenting opinion by Scott, J.: “This court has not found or been cited to directly-controlling authority on our specific issue, i.e., do ‘street, sidewalk, or thoroughfare’ in § 82.210 include grassy strips or ‘parkways’ between a curb and sidewalk? Reasonable minds may differ, as this case proves, but I think such strips fall within § 82.210 for at least two reasons.

Judgment is reversed and remanded.

Henson v. City of Springfield (MLW No. 70543/Case No. SD34731 – 12 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, Rahmeyer, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Greene County, Brown, J. (Tad Kendall Morlan, Springfield, for appellant) (Laural Elizabeth Stevenson, Springfield, for respondents).

Read the full text of this opinion. (PDF)