Cousins v. County of Butler

Citations

• 73 Pa. Super. 86
• 1919 Pa. Super. LEXIS 179

Syllabus

<p>Constitutional law — Sovereign state — Counties — Liability for acts of commissioners — Injuries to inmates of jail.</p> <p>A county, acting as a public agency in the performance of governmental functions, is not liable for the negligence of its officers or employees. It is part of the machinery which constitutes the public system, and, is organized almost exclusively with a view to the policy of tbe state at large, for tbe purpose of political organization and civil administration, in matters of finance, of provision for the poor, and especially for the general administration of justice, and it is, therefore, invested with the. immunity which attaches to the sovereign state.</p> <p>A distinction exists between the liability of a public corporation acting in its special or corporate capacity in the management of property for its own benefit, and its rights and liabilities as a part of the governmental system endowed with the prerogatives of the sovereign gtate.</p> <p>■Where a convict, awaiting removal, is injured while leaning against an iron railing of a stairway leading from the second floor of the jail, which gave way and caused him to fall to the first floor, (¡he county is not liable to such convict for the failure of the county commissioners to keep the jail in proper repair.</p>