Servison v. Young Men's Christian Ass'n of Mason City

• Citation: 296 N.W. 769,230 Iowa 86
• Decision Date: 18 March 1941
• Docket Number: 45418.
• Parties: SERVISON v. YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASS'N OF MASON CITY.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

296 N.W. 769

230 Iowa 86

SERVISON v. YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASS'N OF MASON CITY.

No. 45418.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

March 18, 1941

Appeal from District Court, Cerro Gordo County; T. A. Beardmore Judge.

Action at law by a minor by his next friend to recover for damages for an injury sustained by him in the shower in the gymnasium operated by the defendant. Defendant demurred on the ground that defendant is a non-profit charitable organization and not liable to a beneficiary of its charity. The court sustained the demurrer. Plaintiff elected to stand upon the petition and judgment went against him. He appeals.

Affirmed.

Fitzpatrick & Barlow, of Mason City, for appellant.

Senneff & Senneff, of Mason City, for appellee.

SAGER Justice.

We adopt plaintiff's statement of facts:

" The plaintiff alleged that he, at the time of the injury, was a minor and a paying member of the Young Men's Christian Association of Mason City, Iowa, which association maintains a building which includes gymnasium facilities and a swimming pool. That adjacent to the pool there were showers for the use of the members. That on July 10, 1934, the plaintiff entered the building and, before taking a swim, stepped into a shower slipping and injuring his elbow.

The wound was attended to by an employee of the defendant who poured concentrated iodine on the wound which became infected and the plaintiff suffered an osteomyelitis condition in his hip which has left him permanently crippled, one leg being shorter than the other, and which condition caused him much pain."

" But one error is assigned and that was that the court was in error in ruling: that a non-profit charitable institution is not liable to a beneficiary of its charity in a tort action for negligence of its servants."

That appellant cites a large number of authorities which we are not called on here to analyze. This case is ruled by Mikota v. Sisters of Mercy, 183 Iowa 1378, 168 N.W 219, which sustains the ruling of a trial court. Appellant in effect concedes this but urges that a sounder public policy would impose liability and thus make for a stricter and more careful management of institutions of like character. In support of this appellant relies in part on the language taken from Andrews v. Y. M. C. A., 226 Iowa 374, 284 N.W. 186, 192.

It is not claimed that this overrules the Mikota case, but it is thought that the opinion in the Andrews case points to a...