The Price of a Dangerous Bridge
After a terrifying 18-foot plunge into a river, a Whitman County woman finally wins her long-fought battle for damages against the county.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Whitman County must pay the full judgment of $2,600 awarded by a jury last June to Mrs. Mary Einsidler of near Guy for damages received when her team backed off a county bridge last spring. She was thrown to the river bed below, a distance of 18 feet, and was seriously injured. The case was tried in the Whitman County superior court last June, where she was awarded $2,600. The county appealed to the state supreme court, which has now sustained the verdict. It is said that Mrs. Einsidler's injuries proved much more serious than initially supposed, and her health is permanently impaired. Her attorneys noted that had the full extent of the injuries been known at the time, at least $10,000 would have been sought.
“Whitman county must pay the full judgment... awarded by a jury.”
Infrastructure liability remains a point of contention for local governments today. This case highlights how the physical dangers of 1900-era rural bridges often became the grounds for significant legal precedents regarding public responsibility and safety.
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