The Dreaded Banana Peel

Corporation Counsel's report regarding Robert Bell, 1894; Brooklyn, N.Y., Department of Law, Corporation Counsel records, 2013.015; Brooklyn Historical Society

This is the second in a series of posts on the records of Brooklyn’s Corporation Counsel, which are currently being processed with funding provided by a Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) “Hidden Collections” grant. 

The records of Brooklyn’s Corporation Counsel, who was the head of the Law Department of the City of Brooklyn and the city’s chief legal counsel, document numerous legal cases brought against the city in the 19^th century.  The city’s population ballooned during this period, from around 20,000 in 1830 to over 800,000 by 1890.  As a result, the city’s infrastructure, its roads, rails, and sewers, was also greatly expanded.  This expansion led to greater legal problems for the city – if someone was injured on a Brooklyn street, the city was liable for the damages.  As we all know, the city’s sidewalks today can be treacherous.  One must be wary of ice, loose grates, and the occasional mess left by our neighbors’ pets.  But today I would like to highlight another hazard that 19^th century Brooklynites had to be on the watch for: the dreaded banana peel.

It all happened one summer evening in 1893.  Robert Bell, a 33 year-old tailor, was on his way home from fitting a customer for a suit out in Bedford-Stuyvesant.  Bell lived on Green Lane in downtown Brooklyn (now the site the Farragut Houses), so he hopped on the Myrtle Ave. elevated train, got off at York St., and headed home on foot.  According to Bell’s testimony, it was at this point that he encountered “five or six young ladies,” and being a polite young man he quickly stepped off the sidewalk to let them pass. Unfortunately, he happened to step right into a hole and injured his ankle.

Testimony of Robert Bell, 1893; Brooklyn, N.Y., Department of Law, Corporation Counsel records, 2013.015; Brooklyn Historical Society

So what about the banana peel?

As is often the case, there are two sides to this story.  Officer Daly was on patrol that night and was “attracted to a crowd on Green Lane.”  He came upon Robert Bell, who was supporting himself against a wall.  When questioned, Bell indicated that he had slipped on a banana peel.  A few men in the crowd elected to help the injured man home, and Officer Daly left to continue his patrol.  A few moments later a group of children came upon the officer to tell him that he needed to call an ambulance.  It seems that Bell decided that he was more seriously injured than he initially thought.  So Officer Daly called the ambulance and went back to find Bell, who by now was back at his home.  Soon the doctor arrived and bandaged Bell’s ankle.  A few months later Bell would appear in the Kings County Supreme Court in an effort to sue the city for his injuries – he was probably advised to ditch the banana peel story, and instead blamed Brooklyn’s poorly paved streets.

Corporation Counsel’s report regarding Robert Bell, 1894; Brooklyn, N.Y., Department of Law, Corporation Counsel records, 2013.015; Brooklyn Historical Society

Unfortunately for Mr. Bell, the city had the testimony of several former employers who did not speak highly of him.  In fact, they all indicated that he was an unreliable drunk who should generally not be trusted.  This was corroborated by the physician who attended Bell on the night of his injury, who swore that Bell was intoxicated at the time and that it took two policemen to hold him down in order to dress the injury.  The jury found in favor of the city.

This is just one of hundreds of similar cases found in the records of Brooklyn’s Corporation Counsel.  On the surface, these cases will clearly be of interest to scholars researching how 19^th century municipalities dealt which their ever-increasing liabilities.  Others will be interested in what the files tell us about trade and commerce in Brooklyn at the time (the records document wages earned by Bell as a tailor prior to his injury), and genealogists will of course be interested in the many names and addresses which are dispersed among the files.  Finally, aspiring writers will find an endless supply of characters to populate the next great Brooklyn novel (Robert Bell isn’t the only one stumbling through these files).

We anticipate that the records of the Corporation Counsel will be open researchers in late 2014.  In the meantime, expect more posts highlighting different aspects of the collection to appear monthly.