Blaine v. United States (102 F. Supp. 161, 1951)

ROBERT L. TAYLOR, District Judge.

This is an action under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b) and § 2671, for personal injury caused when plaintiff caught her foot on a fault in a sidewalk alongside the United States Post Office building in Knoxville, Tennessee, and sustained a broken arm in the resultant fall. The fault had occurred as a result of the subsidence of one slab in the sectioned concrete to a depth of approximately three-fourths of an inch below the level of one of the adjacent slabs. The accident occurred on January 15, 1949, plaintiff at the time being on her way to transact business at the postal savings window of the post office.

The Court, having personally examined the sidewalk, finds that the fault exists and that it is fairly represented in the two photographs filed as exhibits in the record. At first glance, a person would not likely pay much attention to the fault, but upon close examination would come to the conclusion that a woman of the age and physical and mental infirmities of plaintiff would likely run into trouble in passing over it, if perchance she placed one of her feet in the most dangerous portion, as was apparently done by plaintiff in the instant case.

Although proof on the subject is scanty, such as there is has not been rebutted, and for the purposes of this litigation it establishes ownership of the sidewalk by the defendant. In its answer, defendant admits that the Knoxville postmaster is custodian o