Smith v. City of San Jose

• Decision Date: 07 December 1965
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Alice SMITH, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CITY OF SAN JOSE, a municipal corporation, Defendant and Respondent. Civ. 22467.

Page 108

48 Cal.Rptr. 108

238 Cal.App.2d 599

Alice SMITH, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CITY OF SAN JOSE, a municipal corporation, Defendant and Respondent.

Civ. 22467.

District Court of Appeal, First District, Division 3, California.

Dec. 7, 1965.

Robert Burns Bostwick, Jr., San Jose, for appellant.

Ferdinand P. Palla, City Atty., City of San Jose, Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel, San Jose, for respondents.

DEVINE, Justice.

Summary judgment was granted to respondent, defendant in an action for personal injuries. Appellant was run into from behind by a running seven-year-old girl while she was descending a backstage stairway in the San Jose Municipal Auditorium. The auditorium was owned by the city, but was being used by a light opera association for rehearsal of a play. The association paid no rent. (The association and the girl, Karen Kersey, were made defendants but are not parties to this appeal.) Appellant had brought her two children to the rehearsal, and was descending the stairs with them. She saw no one else on the stairway. About halfway down, the child ran into her.

Condition of the Property

Appellant's first contention is that the property was negligently maintained. As to the condition of the property, exclusive of handrails, appellant admits in her deposition that the stairway was adequately lighted, that there was no unevenness of the surface, and that there was no slipppery substance on the steps. Appellant argues that the statements made by plaintiff in her deposition could only be used at trial for impeachment; but this is not correct. Admissions against interest may be incorporated by reference in a motion for summary judgment. (Newport v. City of Los Angeles, 184 Cal.App.2d 229, 235, 236, 7 Cal.Rptr. 497.)

But appellant contends that although the stairway was but six feet wide, and had a handrail on each side, to one of which she was holding, there should have been a third, a middle, handrail and that had there been, she would not have fallen. We reject this proposition. To have a middle handrail on so narrow a stairway might actually be dangerous at a time when rapidity of exit were demanded; but, anyway, we hold that as a matter of law it is quite unnecessary to have such a rail on an ordinary staircase six feet wide in order to avoid a charge of negligence. (See Darrach v. Trustees of S. F. Medical Assn., 121 Cal.App.2d 362, 365, 263 P.2d 469.)

Supervision or Patrol

Appellant's second theory of recovery is that the city failed to supervise certain activities. In her complaint, she alleges that she was a business invitee of the city (first count) or a permittee (second count), and she specifies failure to supervise the activities of defendant Karen Kersey, as a proximate result of which she was caused to fall. The complaint does not refer to any common condition, or to failure to supervise children generally. Respondent's motion for summary judgment met this limited complaint with an affidavit of the city's manager of the auditorium, in which it is stated that the auditorium was in the exclusive control of the opera association, that no personnel of the city were provided for the purpose of controlling admittance or rejection of any persons entering the auditorium or for the purpose of ushering, directing or controlling persons who were admitted. This affidavit nagated duty on the part of the city to supervise the activities of the particular child, Karen Kersey.

Thereupon, appellant filed an affidavit which states that the city knew that the stairway would be used by small children and by adults 'who could be knocked over by children running down said stairway.' This creates no triable issue.

It is unnecessary to decide whether the applicable law is that contained in Government Code sections 835-844, which were enacted in 1963, more than a year after plaintiff's accident (the act in which these sections are contained 'applies retroactively to the full extent that it constitutionally can be so applied' (Stats.1963, ch. 1681, § 45, subd. (a), p. 3288)); or whether appellant may rely, as she contends, on the former theory that the auditorium constituted a proprietary function of the city, as held in Chafor v. City of Long Beach, 174 Cal. 478, 163 P. 670, L.R.A.1917E, 685. (The distinction between governmental and proprietary purposes was abolished by the 1963 act. (Van Alstyne, Claifornia Government Tort Liability (Cont.Ed.Bar) § 6.3, p. 195.)) It is unnecessary also to consider whether the position of the city is that of owner only, as distinguished from that of lessee or licensee (the relationship between the city and the association has not been given full explanation). In any case, in order to impose liability on the city, there must have been a failure to use reasonable care to have discovered that negligent acts of third persons were being done or were about to be done, and failure to use reasonable care to protect the public. (Hunter v. Mohawk Petroleum Corp., 51 Cal.2d 439, 334 P.2d 193; Rest., Torts (2d ed.) § 344; Rest., Torts, § 348.) The liability of the proprietor to protect against injury to an invitee from the act of another is based mainly on the fact that the landowner has notice...