98 Neb. 479 | Neb. | 1915
The petition alleges that George Davie, while employed in an annex to the main building of the Douglas county poorhouse, situate on the poor farm, through the negligence of the employees of the county charged with the management of the poorhouse and farm in furnishing him an unsafe and defective ladder upon which to stand while attempting to repair a leak in a steam pipe, suffered an injury from which ten days later he died. From a judgment of the district court for Douglas county, sustaining a general demurrer to the petition of plaintiff as administratrix of the estate of said George Davie,, and dismissing her action, this appeal is prosecuted.
The contention of plaintiff is that a county is liable to its servants, injured by its negligence while at work for it under its orders, the same as any other master, and it is argued that this is especially so “when such work is the exercise by the county of a voluntary, private or ministerial act, as repairs upon its property which it owns, maintains and operates as its private property and for its private advantage, and is not a compulsory or governmental act for the state.” Burke v. City of South Omaha, 79 Neb. 793; Updike v. City of Omaha, 87 Neb. 228; Henry v. City of Lincoln, 93 Neb. 331, and other cases are cited and quoted from to support plaintiff’s contention. An. examination of those cases, all of which were actions against cities, will show that they have no application to the case at bar. The case of a county purchasing a poor farm and maintaining a home for the indigent poor thereon is an entirely different matter. In 11 Cyc. 498d, the general rule is stated thus: “The general rule of law that the superior or employer must answer civilly for the negligence or want of skill of his agent or servant in the course or line of his employment, by which another is injured, does not apply to counties. Counties are usually held to be involuntary quasi-corporations, merely political or civil divisions of the state, created by general laws to aid in the administration of the government. The statutes prescribe all the duties which counties owe, and impose all the
Affirmed.