146 A. 567 | Pa. | 1929
Argued March 22, 1929. The City-County Building in Allegheny County was erected under the Act of 1913, P. L. 96, as amended by the Act of 1915, P. L. 12. The act provided for the erection, use and management of the structure, with authority in the two governing bodies to enter into an agreement to effectuate the full exercise of the powers thus conferred. This agreement covered the use and occupation of certain parts of the building by the city and of other parts by the county. Where one of the parties occupied more space than its share, a specified rate per cubic foot as rental was provided for the excess. The agreement also covered maintenance, repair, care and operation of the building. There are elevators in each end, one half of which are operated by the county with its labor, the other half by the city under a similar arrangement. The building is lighted and heated at their joint expense. It contains the county offices, the courts of common pleas, the Bar Association and the Law Library, also such city offices as the mayor's, treasurer's, city controller's, police bureau, department of public safety, department of public health, public welfare, director of supplies, council chambers, city solicitor, and practically all others, including bureau of water, bureau of granting permits and licenses and all revenue-producing bureaus.
Part of the building is rented to private business enterprises including a cigar stand, public telephones and a tunnel under the building. Persons desiring to transact business with any of these departments are invited into the building where they may use the elevators indiscriminately, that is, either those of the city or county, irrespective of whether the visitor is on city or county business; the operators of the elevators do not know the *189 character of the journey on which their occupants are engaged.
Helen Bell entered an elevator to go to the public welfare department of the city, to obtain a permit for the city hospital. She was directed by the dispatcher to enter an elevator which was standing open, waiting for passengers. The elevator was in the part occupied by the county and was operated by its employee. There was no one else in the car when she got on. She had taken about two steps when it started upward quickly and she was thrown to the floor. The outer door of the elevator shaft had been closed but the inner door on the cage was still open and her right arm was caught between the elevator and shaft and almost torn from her body. She brought suit against the county and the city and recovered a verdict of $8,000 against the county, on which judgment was entered.
The question presented is whether, when, in the joint ownership, maintenance and operation of a building by a city and county, partly for business and partly for governmental purposes, an elevator, used indiscriminately to carry persons to and from the offices, is so operated as to injure a passenger, the county is liable for the negligent act of its servant who causes the injury. We may assume that the county in its own separate activities was engaged in purely governmental functions and there can be no doubt that the city in many of its departments was engaged in purely business enterprises in this building, notably the water business; in the dual or joint relationship of these agencies of government, their activities must be judged from such legal aspects as their mixed relations warrant.
Where a municipal corporation engages in an activity of business, rather than one of a governmental nature, such as the supply of light and water, which is generally carried on by individuals or corporations, it acts as a private corporation, and not in its sovereign capacity: The Western Saving Fund Society of Phila. v. Phila., *190
We need not discuss the well-settled rules with respect to the maintenance and use of buildings and *191
grounds occupied for the exercise of governmental functions, such as courthouses, jails and the like; nor need we repeat the discussion in Scibilia v. Phila.,
The case in principle is ruled by Fox v. Phila.,
The court below did not err in holding the county liable on the question submitted; there is no doubt the *192
negligence of the elevator operator causing the injury was for the jury: Strobel v. Park,
Judgment affirmed.