135 Ky. 570 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1909
Opinion op the Court by
Affirming.
On August 30, 1906, Simon J. Schwalk lost his life while going to some part of the city hall in Louisville upon an elevator used in the building. The city .hall is owned by the appellee, city of Louisville, and practically the whole of the city’s business is conducted within its' walls.
The judgment of the circuit court is bottomed upon the theory that the duty of the city of Louisville to provide and maintain a city hall for the use of its officers and agents and as a place for transacting its business affairs is a public and governmental duty and obligation for the negligence of its agents and servants, in the performance of which the city is not liable in an action for damages. This court is fully committed to the doctrine thus announced. As said in Taylor v. Owensboro, 98 Ky. 271, 32 S. W. 948, 17 Ky. Law Rep. 856, 56 Am. St. Rep. 361: “Municipal governments are auxiliaries of the state government. They are created principally to aid in securing a proper government of the people within the boundaries of such municipalities, and to make more effectual the maintenance of public order.” Louisville Bridge Co. v. City of Louisville, 81 Ky. 189; 5 R. 16; City of Louisville v. Commonwealth, 1 Duv. 295, 85 Am. Dec. 624.
The general rule on this subject is well stated in Burdick’s law of Torts as follows: “Nonliability of City — There is a substantial agreement that it is not liable for the torts of its fire or police departments, nor for those of its boards of health or education; nor for those of any other officers, agents, or servants in the discharge of functions which primarily belong to
In respect to such nonliability for defects in its public buildings, such as a city hall, prison, school-house, or other structure used for public or governmental
It is, however, insisted for appellant that a municipality is charged with the performance of duties of a private and corporate character as well as those of a political or governmental nature, and that, as to the former, the municipality stands upon the same footing with a private corporation and may be held to the same responsibility with a private corporation for injuries resulting from its negligence. This is undoubtedly true, hut unfortunately for this contention in
But appellee has not'put the building in question to such a use as any of those mentioned, but, on the contrary, erected, and has always used it, as and for a city hall, within and from which to manage and conduct the affairs and business of the municipality. It is, in brief, a building wholly devoted to public and governmental uses. This being true, we deem it our duty to adhere to the doctrine announced by past deliverances of this court,, that a municipal corporation is not amenable to actions for negligence in the performance of public duties incident to the exercise of its governmental functions; that persons employed in the performance of such-duties by the municipal corporation act as public officers, charged with a public service, and, being mere agencies or instruments by which such public duties are performed, that the doctrine of respondeat superior does not apply to such employments. To hold otherwise and impose upon
We will not enter npon a discussion of the authorities from the courts of other states relied on in argument by counsel in support of their respective contentions, as we should be and are controlled in the conclusions we have reached by this court’s several previous adjudications of the questions herein involved. Being of opinion that the law exonerates appellee from responsibility for the death of appellant’s intestate, the judgment is affirmed.