Bond v. City of Pittsburgh

Citation84 A.2d 328,368 Pa. 404
PartiesBOND et al. v. CITY OF PITTSBURGH.
Decision Date13 November 1951
CourtPennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 328

84 A.2d 328
368 Pa. 404
BOND et al.
v.
CITY OF PITTSBURGH.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
Nov. 13, 1951.

[368 Pa. 405]

Page 329

Anne X. Alpern, City Solicitor, Thomas E. Barton, Asst. City Solicitor, Pittsburgh, for appellant.

John Wirtzman, Pittsburgh, for Society of St. Vincent De Paul, additional defendant.

Arthur M. Grossman, Pittsburgh, for appellee.

Before DREW, C. J., and STERN, JONES, BELL, LADNER and CHIDSEY, JJ.

HORACE STERN, Justice.

If a pedestrian is injured in a fall caused by a defect in the curbing of a city street and recovers damages in a suit against the municipality, can the latter maintain an action over for indemnity against a charitable organization which owns and occupies the abutting property? That is the principal question involved in the present appeals.

[368 Pa. 406] The wife-plaintiff, Frances Bond, fell one night in front of premises 1612 Webster Avenue, Pittsburgh, where the curbstone and sidewalk had worn away leaving a hole bordered at its outer edge by a broken steel band which had originally lined the curb; the hole was twelve inches long, ten to twelve inches wide and eight or nine inches deep. She and her husband, Vollie Bond, brought suit against the City of Pittsburgh for damages. The City brought in as additional defendant the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the owner of the premises, which it occupied exclusively for charitable purposes. A verdict in the sum of $13,500 for the wife and $2,500 for the husband was rendered for plaintiffs against the City and for the City over against the Society; the court reduced the wife's verdict to $12,000. The Society filed a motion for judgment n. o. v. which was granted. The City now appeals from the judgmants entered against it in favor of the plaintiffs on the ground that the verdicts, even as thus reduced, were excessive, and it appeals also from the judgment entered in favor of the Society.

Page 330

We consider first the question as to the amount of the verdicts. The wife-plaintiff was 29 years of age at the time of the accident. She worked out as a domestic by the day. She lost over $2,000 in earnings in the time between the accident and the trial and she will suffer also a substantial future loss because of inability to do the same hard work as before. She sustained a severe crippling injury consisting of a rupture of a ligament of the knee which resulted in excessive lateral motion of the joint and made it necessary for her leg to be placed in a splint for several months. Finally a major operation was required, consisting of the opening of the knee, the repair of the ligament, and the sewing of some of the muscles. Her leg was then kept in a cast for about ten weeks, after which a knee support was [368 Pa. 407] prescribed for her which she has ever since been obliged to wear. She suffered considerable pain and there still remains some abnormal swelling of the joint; according to her doctor there is not likely to be any further improvement. As far as the husband is concerned, his actual expenses amounted to $1,034 and he will probably be required to expend additional sums in the future for the care of his wife's injury. On the whole, we are not convinced that the verdicts, the one of them as now reduced, are excessive.

This brings us to the question of the City's right to recover from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

Notwithstanding the violent criticisms that have been directed by academic legal writers against the doctrine of the immunity of charitable organizations from tort liability, and notwithstanding also the fact that there is considerable conflict in the judicial decisions on the subject among the several States, our own Commonwealth was, from the earliest times, stood firm in its adherence to the principle of immunity. For confirmation of that assertion it is only necessary to refer to such cases as Fire Insurance Patrol v. Boyd, 120 Pa. 624, 15 A. 553, 1 L.R.A. 417; Gable v. Sisters of St. Francis, 227 Pa. 254, 75 A. 1087; Siidekum, Administrator, v. Animal Rescue League of Pittsburgh, 353 Pa. 408, 45 A.2d 59; Betts v. Young Men's Christian Association of Erie, 83 Pa.Super. 545; Paterlini v. Memorial Hospital Association of Monongahela City, 3 Cir., 247 F. 639. In the Gable case it was said, 227 Pa. at page 258, 75 A. at page 1088, 'It is a doctrine too well established to be shaken, and as unequivocally declared in our own state as in any other, that a public charity cannot be made liable for the tort of its servants.' Surely a doctrine so deeply embedded in the structure of our common law should not lightly be overturned in violation of the rule of stare decisis. Principles of the common [368 Pa. 408] law are not established or developed arbitrarily; they congeal during the course of the years from the fluidity of recurrent judicial decisions which presumably reflect the sentiments and social values of the community. Measured by that standard there is no class of institutions more favored and encouraged by our people as a whole than those devoted to religious or charitable causes. Publicminded benefactors are not likely to have their generous impulses encouraged if advised that some janitor, watchman or other...

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