Howle v. Camp Amon Carter
| Decision Date | 15 January 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 17161,17161 |
| Citation | 462 S.W.2d 624 |
| Parties | John W. HOWLE, Individually and as Next Friend for Johnny Howle, a Minor, Appellants, v. CAMP AMON CARTER et al., Appellees. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Scarborough, Black, Tarpley & Scarborough, Abilene, Byrd, Davis, Eisenberg & Clark, and Bob Roberts, Austin, for appellants.
Strasburger, Price, Kelton, Martin & Unis, and Royal H. Brin, Jr., Dallas, for appellees.
This suit was brought by John W. Howle, individually and as next friend of his minor son, Johnny Howle, against the Young Men's Christian Association of Fort Worth and Tarrant County and against Camp Carter, a branch of the Young Men's Christian Association of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, to recover damages for injuries sustained by the minor when truck in the eye by a sinker or weight attached to a fishing line being cast by a fellow camper while they were both in attendance at a camping session at Camp Carter. As a result of being hit the boy lost the sight of an eye.
Recovery was sought from the two defendants named on the theory that defendants' employees (supervisors at the camp) committed negligent acts or omissions which proximately caused the injuries.
The defendants urged as a defense the fact that defendants were nonprofit organizations and contended that the doctrine of charitable immunity prevented them from being in any way liable to plaintiffs.
The defendants filed a motion for summary judgment urging this defense and the trial court sustained the motion, rendering a take nothing judgment in favor of defendants and this appeal is from that judgment.
On the appeal the plaintiffs' brief urges four (4) points of error . During the argument before this Court counsel for appellants stated to this Court that they waived their third point, same relating to appellees' evidence tending to prove that defendants were nonprofit organizations. Such counsel requested that this Court on this appeal assume that defendants were nonprofit or charitable organizations. For these reasons we will make no further mention of appellants' third point.
Appellants contend in Point 1 that the charitable immunity doctrine is not at this time the law in Texas because it was abolished by the Supreme Court of Texas in the case of Watkins v. Southcrest Baptist Church, 399 S.W.2d 530 (Tex.Sup., 1966).
Prior to the decision in the Watkins case it was the law of Texas that charitable corporations are immune on the ground of public policy from liability for the torts of their agents, in the absence of negligence in employing or keeping the agent, whether the injured person is a beneficiary of the trust or a stranger to it. See Southern Methodist University v. Clayton, 142 Tex. 179, 176 S.W.2d 749 (1943).
In our opinion the Supreme Court in the Watkins case, supra, did not abolish the charitable immunity doctrine. It recognized that the doctrine was still the law in Texas and applied the law of charitable immunity in the Watkins case in affirming that judgment. See on this the article in December, 1968, Texas Bar Journal at page 1036, by Judge Joe Greenhill.
It is true that some members of the Supreme Court indicated in some of the various opinions written in that case that the doctrine of charitable immunity might be reconsidered and changed to some extent in the future.
Since neither the Supreme Court of Texas nor the Legislature have seen fit to abolish the charitable immunity doctrine or modity it since the decision in the Watkins case, supra, it was the constitutional duty of the trial court and it is now the constitutional duty of this intermediate appellate court to follow the law as announced by the Supreme Court in the Watkins case, and in the Southern Methodist University case, supra, where the same question was decided. See 15 Tex.Jur.2d 597, Sec. 137; Williams v. St. Anthony's Hospital, 431 S.W.2d 377 (Amarillo Tex.Civ.App., 1968, ref., n.r.e.); Shivers v. Good Shepherd Hospital, Inc., 427 S.W.2d 104 (Tyler Tex.Civ.App., 1968, ref. n.r.e.); Mayfield v. Gleichert, 437 S.W.2d 638 (), and Tunnell v. Otis Elevator Company,...
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Young Men's Christian Ass'n of Metropolitan Ft. Worth v. Commercial Standard Ins. Co.
...judgment based solely upon this defense. We take judicial knowledge of the records of this court in Howle v. Camp Amon Carter, 462 S.W.2d 624 (Tex.Civ.App. Fort Worth, 1971 rev'd). YMCA attached a certified copy of its charter to its motion, showing that it was a non-profit organization sup......
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Howle v. Camp Amon Carter
...for summary judgment of Camp Amon Carter and the Y.M.C.A. on the ground of charitable immunity. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed. 462 S.W.2d 624. The several opinions in Watkins gave ample notice that the doctrine of charitable immunity would be reconsidered and might well be abrogated. ......