§ 4-13. Maintenance of sidewalks by property owners or occupants.

It shall be the duty and obligation of all owners, occupants, and users of real property abutting upon streets in the city, at their own cost and expense, to maintain and keep the sidewalks, and paving laid thereon, bordering their property at curb grade and level and free of depressions, excavations, elevations, inequalities, obstacles, obstructions, or encroachments, natural or artificial, above or below ground level, or which overlap, impinge upon or appropriate any part of the sidewalk area or the space eight feet above it.

Furthermore, it shall be the duty and obligation of all owners, occupants, and users of real property abutting upon streets in the city to maintain the sidewalks in such manner that no oils, greases, ice, snow, or water are permitted to collect or remain thereon and, generally, to keep such sidewalks in a safe, adequate, and nondefective condition so that they are easily accessible to and may be freely and safely used by the public for travel by foot.

Where and when, by reason of a violation of the provisions of this section, injury or damage is occasioned or inflicted upon any person, whether on the sidewalk or in the street, primary liability for all such injury or damage shall rest upon the owner, occupant and user of the property abutting upon such defective sidewalk.

(Code 1968, § 21-2)