Johnson's Adm'r v. Commissioners of Sewerage of Louisville

• Decision Date: 20 October 1914
• Parties: JOHNSON'S ADM'R v. COMMISSIONERS OF SEWERAGE OF LOUISVILLE ET AL.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

169 S.W. 827

160 Ky. 356

JOHNSON'S ADM'R v. COMMISSIONERS OF SEWERAGE OF LOUISVILLE ET AL.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

October 20, 1914

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jefferson County, Common Pleas Branch Third Division.

Action by George W. Johnson's Administrator against the City of Louisville and the Commissioners of Sewerage of Louisville. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

O'Doherty & Yonts, of Louisville, for appellant.

Leon P Lewis and Pendleton Beckley, both of Louisville, for appellees.

HOBSON C.J.

This suit was brought by the personal representative of George W Johnson against the city of Louisville and the commissioners of sewerage of Louisville to recover for his intestate's death. The circuit court sustained a demurrer to the petition, and dismissed the action. The plaintiff appeals.

Except formal allegations the facts stated in the petition are these: On December 27, 1911, while engaged in the service of the defendants, the intestate was directed by certain officers superior to him in authority to go to a certain concrete pier or abutment, which was above and over a public sewer, and to remove from the water at the mouth of the sewer and below the concrete pier a certain wooden form then floating in the water. While endeavoring to take the wooden form from the water below the concrete pier, the intestate was precipitated from the pier into the water and was drowned. Each of the defendants by their gross negligence permitted the concrete pier to be in a condition not reasonably safe for persons to stand upon, by reason of the fact that the upper part of the concrete pier was wet and slippery to such an extent that a person could not stand upon it with safety; and the defendants and each of them by gross negligence failed to provide the intestate with a reasonably safe place to do the work assigned him, and by reason of such negligence he lost his life. The intestate was at the time in the service of the commissioners of sewerage of Louisville, a corporation created by law. The concrete pier or abutment was not in process of construction, but had been completed, and the intestate was not engaged in any way in repairing the concrete pier. The sewer underneath it had been fully constructed and entirely completed by the commissioners of sewerage of Louisville, and was ready for active operation and in fact was in active operation as a portion of the sewerage...