{
  "id": 8572437,
  "name": "SUSIE JANE WALLS v. CITY OF WINSTON-SALEM",
  "name_abbreviation": "Walls v. City of Winston-Salem",
  "decision_date": "1965-04-07",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "232",
  "last_page": "233",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "264 N.C. 232"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "N.C.",
    "id": 9292,
    "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 5,
    "name_long": "North Carolina",
    "name": "N.C."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T15:18:06.877661+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "SUSIE JANE WALLS v. CITY OF WINSTON-SALEM."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "PER Cueiam.\nThe court, sitting in this nonjury case, did not render judgment on the merits; but at the close of plaintiff's evidence entered judgment of nonsuit. The judgment may be sustained only if the evidence is insufficient to make out a case of negligence against the city, or if it discloses that plaintiff\u2019s negligence, as a matter of law, caused or contributed to her injury. According to the plaintiff\u2019s own evidence, the hole in which she fell had been there, to her knowledge, for two months. Both she and her husband were accustomed to park the family automobile over it. If the hole constituted a hazard, her failure to remember it was certainly inexcusable. The plaintiff\u2019s failure to exercise reasonable care for her own safety constitutes negligence as a matter of law. The nonsuit is\nAffirmed.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "PER Cueiam."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Clyde C. Randolph, Jr., George E. Clayton, Jr., for plaintiff appellant.",
      "Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice by I. E. Carlyle, and H. Grady Barnhill, Jr., for defendant appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "SUSIE JANE WALLS v. CITY OF WINSTON-SALEM.\n(Filed 7 April, 1965.)\nMunicipal Corporations \u00a7 12\u2014\nPlaintiff\u2019s evidence tending to show that she knew of the existence of a hole in the asphalt in the street adjoining the concrete curb in front of her house and that she stepped into the hole and fell on returning at night from a neighboring house, is held, to disclose contributory negligence as a matter of law, since if the hole constituted a hazard plaintiff\u2019s failure to remember it was inexcusable.\nAppeal by plaintiff from Olive, E. J., August 31, 1964 Nonjury Session, Foesyth Superior Court.\nThe plaintiff who lived at 720 Alexander Street in the City of Winston-Salem, instituted this civil action to recover damages for the injury she sustained on the night of October 12, 1963, when she stepped in a hole in the street pavement in front of her home. The sidewalk was unimproved. The street was of asphalt construction with a concrete curb extending 18 inches into the street. The asphalt abutted this curb.\nA concrete walk extended 16 feet from the plaintiff\u2019s doorstep to the curb. Opposite the end of the walk the asphalt had raveled, leaving a depression about 18 inches long, about the same width, and a maximum depth of six to eight inches at the low point. The depression had existed for approximately two months. The plaintiff testified she gave agents of the city notice of the depression. It was not repaired.\nAt about 7:30 or 8:00 o\u2019clock the plaintiff, on a visit to her daughter nearby, stepped in the hole and was injured. The light, half a block away, showed dimly on the hole which was filled by falling leaves. The plaintiff bases her claim for damages on the city\u2019s alleged negligent failure to keep its streets in proper repair.\nFrom a judgment of compulsory nonsuit entered on defendant\u2019s motion, the plaintiff excepted and appealed.\nClyde C. Randolph, Jr., George E. Clayton, Jr., for plaintiff appellant.\nWomble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice by I. E. Carlyle, and H. Grady Barnhill, Jr., for defendant appellee."
  },
  "file_name": "0232-01",
  "first_page_order": 268,
  "last_page_order": 269
}