Dunn v. Brown County Agricultural Soc.

• Decision Date: 13 November 1888
• Citation: 18 N.E. 496,46 Ohio St. 93
• Parties: DUNN v. BROWN COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOC.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

18 N.E. 496

46 Ohio St. 93

DUNN v. BROWN COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOC.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

November 13, 1888

Error to district court, Brown county.

The plaintiff, Rebecca J. Dunn, commenced her action in the court of common pleas of Brown county against the Brown County Agricultural Society, by filing the following petition ‘ The plaintiff says that the defendant is a corporation duly incorporated under the laws of the state of Ohio, and in its corporate capacity held its regular annual fair on its fair-grounds at Georgetown, Brown county, Ohio on the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th days of October, A. D. 1880, to which fair the public were generally in vited to attend; and on the said 7th day of October, 1880, the plaintiff attended said fair, and paid the defendant a valuable consideration for permission to enter said fair-grounds and witness the exhibition of stock and products on exhibition for premiums at said fair. The said defendant had theretofore prepared a large number of seats, and erected the same upon its said fair-grounds, for the accommodation of its patrons and persons attending said fair, and in erecting and constructing said seats was guilty of gross carelessness and negligence and negligently constructed and erected said seats, and with like negligence used and put into the construction of said seats unsound and weak lumber, and which was not sufficiently strong to bear the weight of persons who might be seated thereon. The plaintiff, after entering upon said fair-grounds on the said 7th day of October, A. D. 1880, was seated upon one of the seats so prepared as aforesaid, and the same being unsound and weak, as aforesaid, broke, and caused the plaintiff to fall the distance of about five feet, without any fault or negligence upon her part, whereby the plaintiff was greatly injured in her person, in this, to-wit, both bones of her right fore-arm were dislocated, and she was otherwise greatly bruised and injured upon her arm and shoulder; by reason of which fall and injury she has become permanently and for life crippled and disabled in the use of said right arm, and by reason of said fall and injury she became sick and suffered great pain and anguish of body and mind, and incurred a large expense in and about the employment of physicians to heal and cure the same, amounting to the sum of thirty-five dollars, and has been unable to perform ordinary work by reason of said injury, and has suffered $200 loss by reason of her being unable to work and loss of time as aforesaid. Plaintiff therefore says that by reason of all the premises she has been damaged in the sum of three thousand dollars, for which sum she prays judgment.’ The answer denies ‘ all negligence and want of care charged in the petition,’ and for a separate and second defense alleges that the defendant is ‘ a county agricultural society, organized under an act of the legislature of the state of Ohio entitled an ‘ Act for the encouragement of agriculture,’ passed February 28, 1846, and has complied with the conditions of said act, and performed all the duties made incumbent on it thereby, and by any other legislation of the state passed since said act. It has been such agricultural society of Brown county, Ohio, since the ___ day of _____, A. D. 1849, until the present time, and has held fairs, paid premiums, received moneys from the treasurer of Brown county, and performed all other duties required of it by law as such agricultural society, during all that period.' To this defense the plaintiff demurred, on the ground that the facts therein stated do not constitute a defense to the plaintiff's action. The demurrer was overruled, ‘ and the plaintiff, not desiring to reply, but electing to abide by her demurrer,’ the petition was dismissed, and judgment rendered against her for costs. The judgment was affirmed by the district court, and this proceeding in error is prosecuted to obtain the reversal of both judgments.

Syllabus by the Court

A county agricultural society, organized under the act of February 28, 1846, (44 Ohio L. 70,) and amendments thereto, which has constructed seats on its fair grounds for the use of its patrons, is liable in its corporate capacity to an action for damages by a person who, while attending a fair held by it, and rightfully occupying the seats, sustains an injury in consequence of its negligence in their construction.

W. W. McKnight , for plaintiff in error.

WILLIAMS, J., (after stating the facts as above .)

The petition, it must be conceded, states a cause of action, to which the paragraph of the answer demurred to is no defense unless the defendant is protected against liability for its negligence by the law under which it was incorporated, or it can in some way derive such protection from it. There is a class of public corporations, sometimes called ‘ civil corporations,’ and sometimes ‘ quasi corporations,’ that by the well-settled and generally accepted adjudications of the courts are not liable to a private action in damages for negligence in the performance of their public duties, except when made as by legislative enactment. Of this class are counties, townships school-districts, and the like. The reason for such exemption from liability is that organizations of the kind referred to are mere territorial and political divisions of the state, established exclusively for public purposes connected with the administration of local government. They are involuntary corporations, because created by the state, without the solicitation, or even consent, of the people within their boundaries, and made depositories of limited political and governmental functions, to be exercised for the public good, in behalf of the state, and not for themselves. They are no less than public agencies of the state, invested by it of its own sovereign will with their particular powers, to assist in the conduct of local administration and execute its general policy, with no power to decline the functions devolved upon them, or withhold the performance of them in the mode prescribed; and hence are clothed with the same immunity from liability as the state itself. Board v. Mighels , 7 Ohio St. 110; Finch v. Board , 30 Ohio St. 37; State v. Powers , 38 Ohio St. 54; Bigelow v. Randolph , 14 Gray, 541; Lloyd v. Mayor,...