113 Ky. 852 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1902
Opinion ok tiik court í?y
Affirmino.
Appellee is a city of the fifth class. Appellant sued to recover damages because the city, it is alleged, located a pest house for the treatment of smallpox patients so near his house within the city as to endanger the lives of appellant and his family, and to render his home uninhabitable. A demurrer was sustained to the petition, and he declined to plead further. The petition does not aver ¡hat appellee, by action of its council, vin adopting an ordinance or resolution to that effect, directed the act complained of, or that the council, by ordinance or resolution, ratified the act. In such matters a city acts by its council only. Neither the individual acts of the members (though all may have favored the act), nor of its ministerial officers, unless ratified by council in session, should bind the municipality. Until so adopted or ratified, the act remains as that of the individuals perpetrating it only. But cities of the fifth class are not empowered to establish or maintain pest-houses or hospitals for the treatment of eruptive dismses. Cities of the fourth class are (subsection 0, section 3400, Kentucky Statutes), as are cities of the first (section .2783, Id.), second (section 3058, subsec. 1), and third (section 3200, subsecs. 3, 41. The fact that the Legislature, at its session when the statutes governing cities1 of the various
In our opinion, the petition failed to state a cause of action agaiusi ihe city in this case. Judgment affirmed.