City of Bloomington v. Legg

A city fountain's overhanging spouts snagged a horse's bridle, causing an accident that killed Silas Legg; his father (plaintiff) sued the City of Bloomington (defendant) and introduced evidence of earlier accidents involving the same spouts to show they were known to be dangerous. The city countered with evidence that it had materially changed the spout design after those earlier accidents, and the trial judge instructed the jury to disregard the earlier accidents if it believed the city's evidence of the design change. The jury ruled for Legg, and the city appealed the admission of the prior-accident evidence.