Lindley v. Polk Cnty.

• Citation: 84 Iowa 308,50 N.W. 975
• Parties: LINDLEY v. POLK COUNTY.
• Decision Date: 25 January 1892
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

84 Iowa 308

50 N.W. 975

LINDLEY

v.POLK COUNTY.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Jan. 25, 1892.

Appeal from district court, Polk county; W. F. CONRAD, Judge.

This is an action at law to recover damages by reason of alleged wrongs done to the plaintiff in keeping him in an unhealthy, filthy, and unventilated and improperly constructed jail in said county. There was a demurrer to the petition, which was sustained, and plaintiff appeals.Cole, McVey & Clark, for appellant.

P. H. Sweeney, for appellee.

ROTHROCK, J.

The plaintiff in his petition denounces the said jail at great length. It appears therefrom that he was indicted for forgery, and was confined in said jail upon said charge from March 12, 1886, to July 2d of the same year, when the indictment was dismissed by the prosecuting attorney. It appears from the averments of the petition that the jail is in the basement of the county court-house, and that it is an unfit place to confine prisoners, and that by reason of the unhealthy condition thereof during plaintiff's confinement therein he suffered greatly in his health, and that he was permanently injured thereby. He demands a judgment against the county for $25,000. The demurrer is to the effect that the county, in erecting and maintaining a jail, acts by and through its board of supervisors, and the county is not liable for the failure of the board to provide a suitable jail. There is no real distinction between this case and the case of Kincaid v. Hardin Co., 53 Iowa, 430, 5 N. W. Rep. 589. In that case the plaintiff fell down a narrow, insufficient, and unguarded stairway in a county court-house, in the night. The stairway was not lighted. It was held that the county was not liable. The reasons for that holding are stated quite fully in the cited case, and it is unnecessary to repeat them here. This case appears, from the argument of appellant's counsel, to be founded upon a distinction which is named in the cited case between the relation of a county to a court-house and that existing between the county and a county bridge. That decision was not based entirely upon the distinction named. That case was determined more than 11 years ago, and was followed in the case of Green v. Harrison Co., 61 Iowa, 311, 16 N. W. Rep. 136. As was said in the case first above cited: “The line of decisions in this state as to the liability [of a county] for defective bridges stands almost, if not quite alone. * * * We have no disposition to carry the...