City of Lexington v. Greenhow
| Decision Date | 06 March 1970 |
| Citation | 451 S.W.2d 424,41 A.L.R.3d 1018 |
| Parties | CITY OF LEXINGTON, Appellant, v. John C. GREENHOW, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
William C. Jacobs, Lexington, for appellant.
David Van Horn, Lexington, for appellee.
CHARLES M. ALLEN, Special Commissioner.
This is an appeal by the City of Lexington from a judgment entered on a jury verdict for appellee in the amount of $2,625.35 of which $2,500 was for pain and suffering and the balance for medical bills incurred by the appellee.
The appellee on February 8, 1966, had been arrested by the Lexington City Police and taken to the holdover at the police station there. He testified that almost immediately after he was placed in the holdover a 260-pound black man named Angelo Hamilton attacked him and that as a result he was taken to St. Joseph Hospital and since that time has suffered from migraine headaches. No officer or turnkey was present at the time that he was attacked and shortly after he was attacked another man in the holdover and the turnkey came to his rescue.
The appellee in support of his theory that the appellant was guilty of negligence introduced proof to the effect that there had been a killing which had occurred in the holdover four years before the incident which culminated in appellee's injuries. This testimony was vigorously objected to and its admission is part of the basis for the appeal. There was also testimony that the City had considered purchasing a television monitoring set by which means it could detect from a central point any disturbances that might occur in the holdover. This testimony was also vigorously objected to and forms another basis for the appeal.
The City had in its possession a record showing that Angelo Hamilton had been arrested for being drunk in a public place on February 4, 1966, but had no record showing his propensity for violence.
The only other proof bearing on the question of negligence of the appellant was that of Police Chief Hale who testified that the City had had difficulty with prisoners from time immemorial. He stated that when the prisoners come in the holdover rough and wild drunk, you have to put them in a cell until they sober up. He stated that they were always put in a cell by themselves when they were wild.
The appellant contends vigorously that the trial court should have directed a verdict and failing that should have sustained the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The leading case in Kentucky is...
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Davis v. State, Dept. of Corrections
...danger, or reason to anticipate the danger. See, e.g., Flaherty v. State, 296 N.Y. 342, 73 N.E.2d 543 (1947); City of Lexington v. Greenhow, 451 S.W.2d 424 (Ky.1970); Cohen v. United States, 252 F.Supp. 679 (D.C.Ga.1966), rev'd. on other grounds, 389 F.2d 689 (5th Cir.1967). See also, Annot......
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Cupples v. State
...on his part was the critical factor in reversing a judgment for a prisoner assaulted by a fellow prisoner in City of Lexington v. Greenhow, 451 S.W.2d 424 (Ky.1970). That a fellow prisoner with whom the plaintiff prisoner had been quarreling would remove a cylinder of acid from a fire extin......
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Harris v. State
...F.Supp. 788, 790 (D.S.D.1970); Adams v. State, Department of Institutions, 247 So.2d 149, 151 (La.App.1971); Lexington v. Greenhow, 451 S.W.2d 424, 41 A.L.R.3d 1018 (Ky.1970); Justice v. Rose, 102 Ohio App. 482, 144 N.E.2d 303, 305 (Ohio In Muniz the plaintiff, a prisoner at the United Stat......
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Harvey v. Dickson County, No. M2007-01793-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. App. 5/21/2008)
...421 So.2d 1090, 1092, 1093 (Dist. Ct. App.1982), petition for review denied w/o op., 430 So.2d 452 (Fla. 1983); Lexington v. Greenhow, 451 S.W.2d 424, 425-26 (Ky. Ct. App. 1970); Parker v. State, 282 So.2d 483, 486 (La.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1093, 94 S.Ct. 724, 38 L.Ed.2d 550 (1973); Pad......