Author: Nathan Howard Jr

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-02

Total Pages: 646

ISBN-13: 9781330559727

Excerpt from Practice Reports in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, Vol. 44: Of the State of New York Daniels, J. This action was brought originally against Bernice B. Smith, as commissioner of highways, of the town of New Lebanon, and it has since been continued against his successors in office. The demand made by the plaintiff was for damages occasioned to a horse by reason of an injury created by passing his leg down a hole in a defective bridge, on one of the public highways of the town. It was claimed that the highway commissioner had received notice of the unsafe character of the bridge, the year before the injury was sustained, and that he had negligently omitted to cause it to be repaired. If such was the fact, as the evidence tended to prove it was, then the delinquent commissioner was guilty of a wrong, rendering him liable for all its consequences to those who might be injured by means of it. It was his wrong exclusively, and not that of his successors in office, and he might have been sued for it as a mere individual, relying upon his official obligation to establish the duty he had violated. It was not a case, therefore, where the action could be continued against his successor in office, for that right is limited to those cases when a contract has been entered into, or a liability may have been incurred, in behalf of the town, within the scope of the officer's authority. (3 R. S. 5th ed., 775, 111.) If the liability relied upon, existed at all, it was not acurred on behalf of the town neither was it within the scope of his authority, for no authority was any where conferred upon him to involve the town in liability, on account of his negligent omission of duty. Such liability would invert the established principle of law, requiring a subordinate wrong-doer to indemnify his superior against the consequences of his wrong. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."