Boudreau v. City of Springfield

By the Court.

This is an action of tort to recover compensation for injuries received by the plaintiff by reason of an alleged defect in a highway. The place where the injury occurred as shown by the evidence was not on a sidewalk but on the part of the way designed for vehicular traffic ádjacent to a rail of street railway tracks. There is no evidence of a breach of the statutory duty of the defendant. The plaintiff’s evidence as to the alleged defect was that “she slipped on a patch of ice formed from water which had filled a saucer-shaped depression in the surface of the street.” Another witness described the place as a “hole in. the pavement.” There is nothing to indicate the size of the alleged “depression” or “hole.” The photographs of the plaintiff indicate a slight depression not amounting to a defect in the street. On the authority of Raymond v. Lowell, 6 Cush. 524 , Newton v. Worcester, 174 Mass. 181 , and Cannon v. Brookline, 256 Mass. 468 , the plaintiff cannot recover. In view of the ground on which this decision rests, the other points argued need not be considered.

Exceptions overruled.