# Icy Sidewalks: Who is responsible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 19, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icy-sidewalks-who-is-responsible/568230 "2011-01-19T18:44:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icy-sidewalks-who-is-responsible/568230/41 "2011-01-23T20:28:47Z")
Yes, reading between the lines in the 1910 cases, one sees a little exasperation with the logic of the _Rumsey_ court. In _Ryerson_, 93 N.E. at 165, the court kind of sighs: “The Rumsey Case . . . has become a rule of property, which has been relied on for many years, and which we should not now disregard.” Meanwhile in the _Sears_ case, 93 N.E. at 162, the same court says that “title of the abutting lot owners . . . in the School Section . . .had become vested to the center of the streets,” so any statute saying otherwise would be a taking. Interestingly (to me), this is the same court that only a few years earlier had ruled that the General Assembly could not take Montgomery Ward’s interest in having Grant Park “forever open, free, and clear”—even by eminent domain. I suppose the court is more lenient with having the intent shown by the canal commissioners (before there was a Plat Act) modify the common-law rule than with letting the school commissioners ignore the statutory requirements spelled out by the Plat Act passed a few months earlier. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icy-sidewalks-who-is-responsible/568230/42 "2011-01-23T23:54:46Z")
This has been a most informative thread, thanks to you, Mr Downtown, whoever you are. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icy-sidewalks-who-is-responsible/568230.md?page=2)