Hughes v. Monroe Cnty.

• Citation: 147 N.Y. 49,41 N.E. 407
• Parties: HUGHES v. MONROE COUNTY.
• Decision Date: 08 October 1895
• Court: New York Court of Appeals

147 N.Y. 49

41 N.E. 407

HUGHES

v.MONROE COUNTY.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Oct. 8, 1895.

Appeal from supreme court, general term, Fifth department.

Action by Elizabeth G. Hughes against the county of Monroe for personal injuries. There was a verdict for plaintiff, but defendant's motion for a new trial, made at general term (29 N. Y. Supp. 495), was granted, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Eugene Van Voorhis, for appellant.

F. E. Drake, for respondent.

BARTLETT, J.

The plaintiff appeals from an order made on a motion heard at the general term in the first instance, granting a new trial after verdict at the Monroe circuit in her favor. The plaintiff, an employé at the Monroe county insane asylum, was severely injured while operating a machine known as a ‘steam mangle,’ which was used in the laundry. At the trial it was insisted on behalf of the defendant that the county of Monroe was not liable, in any event; that, assuming its liability, the plaintiff had failed to make out a case of action. As we are of opinion that the county of Monroe is not liable, under the facts as disclosed in this record, it is unnecessary to determine whether the plaintiff was entitled to go to the jury. The plaintiff was injured February 11, 1891. Before this action was commenced the county law of 1892 was in force; but it is unnecessary to examine its provisions, as the status of the county of Monroe on the 11th day of February, 1891, must determine its liability. Prior to the year 1863 the county of Monroe cared in part for its insane in a department of the county poorhouse. By chapter 82, Laws 1863, it was enacted that the insane asylum of the county of Monroe should be a separate and distinctinstitution from that of the Monroe county poorhouse, and the board of supervisors were placed in control, and authorized to elect a warden, who was to hold office for three years, and a board of three trustees for a like term. The warden was constituted the chief officer of the asylum, subject to the regulations established by the board of supervisors. All purchases for the asylum were to be made by the warden, under the direction of the trustees. All contracts with the attendants and assistants were to be made in the official names of the trustees. The warden was also required to make out and deliver to the trustees, annually, an inventory of all property belonging to the asylum. The warden was also authorized to make contracts for the support of insane persons of the county, and, by the direction of the board of supervisors or the trustees, to demand from the state lunatic asylum all persons who were chargeable to the county of Monroe, or to any town or city in the county. It was further provided that no insane person residing in the county of Monroe, and likely to become a county charge, should thereafter be admitted to the state lunatic asylum without the written consent of the trustees of the Monroe county asylum, or the chairman of the board of supervisors. By chapter 633, Laws 1870, it was made the duty of the trustees to determine all questions in relation to the indigent insane, as to whether their maintenance was properly a charge upon a specified town within the county of Monroe, or upon the city of Rochester, or upon the county of Monroe. The trustees were also empowered, when any lunatic, not indigent, was placed in the asylum, to charge his estate, or the person legally responsible for this maintenance, and to collect the same.

It will thus be observed that the county of Monroe, being legally chargeable, as one of the political divisions of the state with the care of its insane, saw fit in 1863, with the consent of the legislature, to undertake the discharge of that duty through the instrumentality of a county asylum. In other words, the county of Monroe from that time shared with the state the burden of caring for the insane, withdrew from the state lunatic asylum all indigent insane for whose maintenance it was liable, and secured legislation requiring all the pauper insane of the county to enter its own asylum. When an insane person is deprived of his liberty and the custody of his property, placed in close confinement, and separated from family and friends, it is an extreme exercise of the police power by the state, or some political division thereof, for the protection of society, and to promote the best interests of the unfortunate victim of mental alienation. It therefore follows that the county of Monroe, while acting under the statutes referred to, was engaged in the discharge of a most important public duty, and consequently not liable to the plaintiff in damages by reason of her injuries. Dill. Mun. Corp. (4th Ed.) § 693; Add. Torts (Banks' Ed.) p. 1298, § 1526. In Maxmillian v. Mayor of New York, 62 N. Y. 160, this court laid down the rules of law that control this case. The plaintiff sought to recover damages for the death of her intestate, who was killed by an ambulance wagon which was driven by an employé of the commissioners of charities and corrections. It was held that when the city of New York, by legislative enactment, was required to elect or appoint an officer to perform a public duty, laid not upon it, but upon the officer, in which it had no private interest, and from which it derived no special advantage, such officer is not a servant or agent of the municipality for whose acts it is liable, even though the officer had...