Howard v. City of Chattanooga

• Decision Date: 21 November 1936
• Parties: HOWARD v. CITY OF CHATTANOOGA.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 510

98 S.W.2d 510

HOWARD v. CITY OF CHATTANOOGA.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

November 21, 1936.

Error to Circuit Court, Hamilton County; Oscar Yarnell, Judge.

Suit by Bennie Howard against the City of Chattanooga. To review an adverse judgment, plaintiff brings error.

Affirmed.

J. W. Anderson, of Chattanooga, for defendant in error.

CHAMBLISS, Justice.

The trial judge sustained a demurrer to a declaration in this suit for personal injuries. The declaration alleged that Howard was a prisoner, convicted of a misdemeanor, who was injured while working out a fine at a rock quarry as the result of the negligence of his boss or guard employed by the municipality. The demurrer denied liability of the City for the alleged negligence because the City was in the performance of a governmental function.

The general rule unquestionably is that a municipality is not liable for injuries resulting from the negligence of its employees in charge of prisoners while confined in its jail or workhouse, and engaged in working out fines. To this effect are leading text-book authorities (19 R.C.L. § 404, p. 1125 and McQuillen on Municipal Corporations (2 Ed.) Vol. 6, § 2813) supported by numerous decisions: Nisbet v. Atlanta, 97 Ga. 650, 25 S.E. 173; Braunstein v. Louisville, 146 Ky. 777, 143 S.W. 372, 42 L.R.A.(N.S.) 538; Bell v. Cincinnati, 80 Ohio St. 1, 88 S.E. 128, 23 L.R.A. (N.S.) 910; Brown's Adm'r v. Guyandotte, 34 W.Va. 299, 12 S.E. 707, 11 L.R.A. 121; Curran v. Boston, 151 Mass. 505, 24 N.E. 781, 8 L.R.A. 243, 21 Am.St.Rep. 465; Evans v. Kankakee, 231 Ill. 223, 83 N.E. 223, 13 L.R.A.(N.S.) 1190; Carty's Adm'r v. Village of Winooski, 78 Vt. 104, 62 A. 45, Note, 2 L.R.A.(N.S.) 95, 6 Ann.Cas. 436; Haley v. Boston, 191 Mass. 291, 77 N.E. 888, 5 L.R.A.(N.S.) 1005; Hughes v. Monroe County, 147 N.Y. 49, 41 N.E. 407, 39 L.R.A. 33; Gray v. City of Griffin, 111 Ga. 361, 36 S.E. 792, 51 L.R.A. 131; Warren v. Booneville, 151 Miss. 457, 118 So. 290.

Ulrich v. St. Louis, 112 Mo. 138, 20 S.W. 466, 468, 34 Am.St.Rep. 372, and Jackson v. Owingsville (Ky.) 121 S.W. 472, 25 L. R.A.(N.S.) 180 (and see citations in the note following this case) apply this rule specifically to alleged failure to supply the prisoner with a safe place to work or proper tools. The opinion in the Ulrich Case, supra, quotes from Dillon on Municipal Corporations the following:

"The city defendant, in conducting its workhouse, cannot be regarded as doing so as a means of profit or private municipal gain or revenue. It is obvious beyond question that the workhouse in this case was erected and conducted for the public good, and imprisonment therein was only the legitimate exercise of suitable police regulations, such as the city undoubtedly had the power to enact."

In support of this rule, we quote from our case of Combs v. City of Elizabethton, 161 Tenn. 363, 31 S.W.(2d) 691, as follows:

"It is suggested that a municipality does draw emolument from the enforcement of its ordinances in the collection of fines, and that for this reason the arrest of offenders should be treated as the prosecution of a corporate rather than a governmental function. The assessment of such fines, however, is by way of punishing the transgressor — a means of enforcing the law. Money gain derived from the fines is purely incidental."

In the Combs Case, supra, Chief Justice Green refers to earlier holdings of this court applying the governmental function doctrine to the handling of prisoners by municipal officers (Pesterfield v. Vickers, 43 Tenn. (3 Cold.) 205, and Davis v. Knoxville, 90 Tenn. 599, 18 S.W. 254), and, as indicated in the above quotation from his opinion, plainly recognized as incidental only to the enforcement of the law the collection of fines from prisoners, and whether in money or work we think immaterial.

Apparently conceding the general rule to be as above stated, counsel for plaintiff below urge an exception when, as here, the prisoner is being worked...