Jernigan v. Lakeside Park Co., 18080

• Decision Date: 26 August 1957
• Docket Number: No. 18080,18080
• Citation: 314 P.2d 693,136 Colo. 141
• Parties: Opal Doris JERNIGAN, James Payne, John Drew, Carolyn Maddox, Theodore Daviss, Lemmie Ruth Daviss; Michael Wayne Daviss, a minor, by his next friend, Theodore Daviss, and Wardell Bell, Plaintiffs in Error, v. LAKESIDE PARK COMPANY, Leo Peterson and Nellie M. Ede, Defendants in Error.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 693

314 P.2d 693

136 Colo. 141

Opal Doris JERNIGAN, James Payne, John Drew, Carolyn Maddox,

Theodore Daviss, Lemmie Ruth Daviss; Michael Wayne Daviss, a

minor, by his next friend, Theodore Daviss, and Wardell

Bell, Plaintiffs in Error, v. LAKESIDE PARK COMPANY, Leo Peterson and Nellie M. Ede,

Defendants in Error.

No. 18080.

Supreme Court of Colorado, In Department.

Aug. 26, 1957.

Montfort, Wilson & Deikman, Denver, for plaintiffs in error.

George J. Robinson, Ray A. Curran, Lakewood, for defendants in error.

KNAUSS, Justice.

In the trial court plaintiffs in error were plaintiffs and defendants in error were defendants. We will refer to the parties as they there appeared, or by name.

Plaintiffs' original complaint alleged that they were 'members of the Negro race, so-called.' That on August 13, 1955 defendant Lakeside Park Company operated a public place of amusement, including a public swimming pool; that defendant Ede was an employee of Lakeside Park Company and a ticket seller at said swimming pool and that defendant Leo Peterson was an employee of said Lakeside Park Company, acting as Chief of Police in said place of amusement; that Peterson and Ede denied to plaintiffs 'solely on the grounds of their race' admission to the swimming pool; it was also alleged that Plaintiffs Jernigan, Payne, Drew and Maddox demanded and were denied admission to said pool at 1:45 p. m., again at 2 p. m. and again at 5:10 p. m. on said date. Judgment was prayed for in the sum of $10,000.

To this complaint defendants filed a motion to require the plaintiffs to have their several claims 'stated in separate counts' which motion was granted. Thereupon plaintiffs filed a sixty page complaint in which is set forth the separate claims of the plaintiffs, all based on the allegations of the original complaint, Jernigan, Payne, Drew and Maddox dividing their separate demands against the three defendants into nine separate claims; and the other plaintiffs dividing their demand into six separate claims. This amended complaint alleged the acts of the defendant were 'contrary to the provisions of the statute in such case provided,' and demanded judgment for $500 for each refusal of access to the pool against each of the defendants.

To this amended complaint defendants moved 'that each and every allegation of the several claims of the several plaintiffs, save and except paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the first claim of Opal Doris Jernigan be stricken from the...