Elson v. Town of Waterford

Abatement and Revival — Rights of Action which Survive — ‘Action for Personal Injury. Gen. St. Conn. 1902, § 2020, giving any person injured in person or property by means of a defective road or bridge a right of action for damages against tbe municipality whose duty it is to maintain such road or bridge in repair, is not a penal statute in such sense that a right of action thereon does not survive the death of the person injured.

At Law. On motion by defendant for judgment notwithstanding verdict. • This is an action by plaintiff, as administrator of Jacob Elson, based on Gen. St. Conn. 1902, § 2020, to recover damages for an injury received by his intestate by being dragged from a load of stone, on which he was riding on a highway, by the overhanging branches of a tree, which injury resulted in his death a few days later. There was a trial, resulting in a verdict for plaintiff for $2,500. The present motion is based on the case of Bartram v. Sharon, 71 Conn. 686, 43 Atl. 143, 46 L. R. A. 144, 71 Am. St. Rep. 225, which held that the damages recoverable under such statute are in the nature of a penalty.