Raven v. Coates, 59-696
| Decision Date | 09 January 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. 59-696,59-696 |
| Citation | 125 So.2d 770 |
| Parties | Alvina Ann RAVEN and John Raven, her husband, Appellants, v. Nancie Boughner COATES and David Owen Coates, and the City of Hialeah, a municipal corporation, Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Hubert G. Roberts, Hialeah, for appellants.
Carey, Goodman, Terry, Dwyer & Austin, Miami, Ralph F. Miles, Hialeah, for appellees.
The plaintiffs appeal from a final judgment dismissing their complaint against the City of Hialeah. They claimed damages for personal injuries to the wife resulting from an intersectional collision allegedly caused by the failure of the city to maintain a stop sign at the intersection. The judgment is affirmed.
The specific allegation of negligence contained in appellants' complaint was:
'* * * The City of Hialeah, acting through its duly authorized and constituted agents, servants and/or employees, by the exercise of ordinary care, knew or should have known, that a Stop Sign on the Southeast corner of the said intersection had been taken down, fallen down, or had collapsed, therefore endangering the lives and property of all motor vehicle operators on East Third Avenue, in the City of Hialeah, Florida at this particular intersection and at this particular time.'
In Holton v. City of Bartow, Fla.1953, 68 So.2d 385, and Avey v. City of West Palm Beach, 152 Fla. 717, 12 So.2d 881, it was held that a municipality was not liable for the torts growing out of the maintenance of a traffic control system because such was a purely governmental function. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of Florida in Hargrove v. Town of Cocoa Beach, Fla.1957, 96 So.2d 130, 60 A.L.R.2d 1193, receded from its prior decisions which held that municipal corporations were immune from liability for torts of police officers and held that when an individual suffers a direct, personal injury proximately caused by the negligence of a municipal employee while acting within the scope of his employment, the injured individual is entitled to redress for the wrong done. The reasoning employed was that since the modern city is in substantial measure a large business institution, to continue to endow it with immunity in all of the activities formerly designated as governmental, is unjust.
Pursuant to the holding of the Supreme Court in the Hargrove case, supra, this court has held that where it was alleged that a municipality was negligent in the...
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...be the exercise of a legislative or quasi-legislative function, for which the municipality is immune from liability. In Raven v. Coates, 3rd D.C.A.Fla.1961, 125 So.2d 770, cert. den., 138 So.2d 339, the plaintiff sought damages from a municipality for injuries allegedly resulting from the f......
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...a traffic control device at a particular intersection because such decisions are a matter of judgment by city officials. Raven v. Coats, Fla.App .1961, 125 So.2d 770. The State of New York has legislatively waived its immunity for the torts of State officers and employees. This loss of immu......
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Gordon v. City of West Palm Beach, 74--9
...Avey v. City of West Palm Beach, 152 Fla. 717, 12 So.2d 881 (1943); Holton v. City of Bartow, Fla.1953, 68 So.2d 385; Raven v. Coates, Fla.App.1961, 125 So.2d 770. For reasons of harmony, the foregoing cases must be distinguished from the sort of case which demonstrates the existence of tha......
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