City of Galveston v. Posnainsky

Citations

• 62 Tex. 118
• 1884 Tex. LEXIS 196

Syllabus

<p>1. Liability of municipal corporation created by special act for damages.— The city of Galveston, a municipal corporation created by act of the legislature, was by charter invested with exclusive control over its streets and alleys, public grounds and highways in the city, and with power to widen, regulate, clean or improve the same, to put drains and sewers therein, and to prevent the incumbering thereof; to establish, erect, construct, regulate and keep in repair sidewalks, culverts and sewers; to compel persons to keep filth, rubbish, etc., from the sidewalks and streets and gutters, in front of premises occupied by them, and also other powers set forth in the opinion. A permanent physical injury resulted to a child, nine years old, •- who fell into an uncovered ditch in the city, from two to three feet deep, which for a long time had been left open by the city, along a defective sidewalk and without barrier or protection. In the ditch rubbish and piles of glass had been suffered to accumulate. In a suit for damages brought for the child, held:</p> <p>(I) The liability of the city could not result from any express statute.</p> <p>(3) No recovery could be had on such a cause of action had it been brought for injury resulting from neglect of the public officers of a subdivision of the state, even if given a quasi corporate existence, if created solely for a public purpose by a general law, applicable to all such subdivisions.</p> <p>(3) This rule grows out of the principle that a state cannot be made liable to an action for neglect or misfeasance of its officers, through which a person is injured, unless some statute creates the liability. Citing Bigelow v. Inhabitants of Randolph, 14 Gray, 543; Eastman v. Meredith, 36 N. H., 295, and other cases.</p> <p>(4) The tendency of decisions is, however, to change the rule to a limited degree, so as to make even quasi corporations liable.</p> <p>(5) The rule exempting quasi corporations from liability on such a cause of