Parks v. Town of Princeton

Winborne, J. Admitting the truth of the allegations of fact set forth in'the complaint, as well as relevant inference of facts necessarily deducible therefrom, as we must do in testing the sufficiency of the complaint, challenged by demurrer, Ins. Co. v. McCraw, 215 N. C., 105, 1 S. E. (2d), 369, and numerous other cases, we are of opinion that the complaint fails to state a cause of action against defendant town of Princeton. The decisions of this Court uniformly hold that in the absence of some statute which subjects it to liability therefor, a city and town, when acting in its corporate character, or in the exercise of powers for its own advantage, may he liable for the negligent acts of its officers and agents; but when acting in the exercise of police power, or judicial, discretionary, or legislative authority, conferred by its charter or by statute, and when discharging a duty imposed solely for the public benefit, it is not liable for the tortious acts of its officers and agents. Moffitt v. Asheville, 103 N. C., 237, 9 S. E., 695, 14 Am. St. Rep., 810; Nichols v. Fountain, 165 N. C., 166, 80 S. E., 1059, 52 L. R. A. (N. S.), 942, Ann. Cas., 1915-D, 152, 8 N. C. C. A., 872; Hodges v. Charlotte, 214 N. C., 737, 200 S. E., 889, and numerous other cases. Applying these principles to the facts alleged in the complaint, the acts of the police officer with respect to the arrest and imprisonment of plaintiff, and to the arrest, search and imprisonment of the other person, pertain to the discharge of duties imposed solely for the public benefit, for which the town of Princeton is not liable. But with regard to the prison, the Constitution of North Carolina, Article XI, sec. 6, provides that: “It shall be required, by competent legislation, that the structure and superintendence of penal institutions of the State, the county jails and city police prisoners, secure the health and comfort of the prisoners . . .” The subject of the duty of a municipality in respect to its jails has been considered in several decisions of this Court: Lewis v. Raleigh, 77 N. C., 229; Moffitt v. Asheville, supra; Shields v. Durham, 116 N. C., 394, 21 S. E., 402; S. c., 118 N. C., 450, 24 S. E., 794, 36 L. R. A., 293; Coley v. Statesville, 121 N. C., 301, 28 S. E., 482; Hobbs v. Washington, 168 N. C., 293, 84 S. E., 391; Nichols v. Fountain, supra. See, also, Annotation in 46 A. L. R., 94, at page 98. *365 In these decisions, the Court, recognizing and applying the general principal that a municipality is not liable for the acts of its officers done in performance of purely governmental powers for the benefit of the public, declares the settled rule in this State to be that a municipality is liable only for failure to properly construct the prison or to so furnish it as to afford to prisoners reasonable comfort and protection from suffering and injury to health. The factual situation in the case of Nichols v. Fountain, supra, is very similar to that in the present case. There the Court held that the town was not liable. In order to establish actionable negligence, “the plaintiff must show: First, that there has been a failure to exercise proper care in the performance of some legal duty which the defendant owed the plaintiff, under the circumstances in which they were placed; and second, that such negligent breach of duty was the proximate cause of the injury- — a cause that produced- the result in continuous sequence and without which it would not have occurred, and one from which any man of ordinary prudence could have foreseen that such result was probable under all the facts as they existed.” Whitt v. Rand, 187 N. C., 805, 123 S. E., 84; Ramsbottom v. R. R., 138 N. C., 39, 50 S. E., 448; Templeton v. Kelley, 215 N. C., 577, 2 S. E. (2d), 696. In the light of these principles, if it be conceded that the prison of the town of Princeton is not properly constructed and properly equipped, the complaint fails to show any causal connection between such condition and the injury suffered by plaintiff. The judgment below is Affirmed. Seawell, J\, dissents.