Clark v. City of Nicholasville

• Decision Date: 26 May 1905
• Parties: CLARK v. CITY OF NICHOLASVILLE et al.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

87 S.W. 300

CLARK v. CITY OF NICHOLASVILLE et al.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

May 26, 1905

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jessamine County.

"Not to be officially reported."

Action by Inez Clark against the city of Nicholasville and its board of education. Judgment for defendants, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Breckenridge & Shelby and N.D. Miles, for appellant.

J. H Welch and N. L. Bronaugh, for appellees.

HOBSON C.J.

Appellant Inez Clark, who is a little girl 12 years old, fell from the stairway of the school building at Nicholasville to the first floor, sustaining permanent injuries. She brought this suit against the city of Nicholasville and the board of education of the city, charging that the city owned the building; that the school was conducted in it by the board of education that she attended the school as a pupil; that the banisters protecting the stairway were insufficient; that this was known to the city and to the board of education, but that they negligently allowed the banisters of the stairway to be insufficient; and that the defendants knew other children had fallen over the banisters before. The court sustained a general demurrer to her petition, and she appeals.

The duty of providing public education at the public expense by building and maintaining schoolhouses and conducting public schools therein is purely a public or governmental duty, in the discharge of which school districts act as the representatives of the state, and are exempt from corporate liability for the improper construction of the houses, or want of proper repair, or the wrongs of the servants employed. Shearman & Redfield on Negligence, § 267; Hill v. Boston, 23 Am. Rep. 332; Wixon v. Newport, 43 Am. Rep. 35; Ford v. School District (Pa.) 15 A 812, 1 L. R. A. 607. In Ernst v. City of West Covington, 76 S.W. 1089, 25 Ky. Law Rep. 1027, 63 L. R A. 652, a child in West Covington attending the public school had fallen over a wall which had been negligently left in a dangerous condition by the school authorities. It was held that she could not recover. The court said: "The state regards it as her duty to establish and maintain a system of public education. When sums have been collected for that purpose, they cannot be diverted to any other use or purposes. If it could be done, the system would be injured, and the public suffer incalculable injury. If some one is injured by the faulty construction of a public...