Denning v. State

Citations

• 123 Cal. 316
• 55 P. 1000
• 1899 Cal. LEXIS 1070

Syllabus

<p>Negligence of Habbob Commissioners—Insecure Ladder upon TugBoat—Injury to Employee—Liability of State.—The state is not liable for damages to an employee of the board of state harbor commissioner^, engaged in attending to fire-alarm duty upon a tug-boat belonging to the state and used by the board,, though such damage resulted from the alleged negligence off the board, in permitting a ladder thereon to be insecurely fastened, to the injury of such employee.</p> <p>Id.—Act of 1893—Statutory Construction.—The act of 1893 (Stats.. 1803, p. 37) allowing actions upon contract or for negligence against the state, where the claims thereon are not allowed by the state board of examiners, did not create any liability or cause of action against the state where none existed, but merely gave an additional remedy to enforce such liability as. would have existed if the statute had not been enacted.</p> <p>Id.—Governmental Functions of Harbor Commissioners.—The harbor-commissioners exercise governmental functions in the discharge-of the duties enjoined upon them by law, and the fact that tile board is authorized to collect tolls and charges for dock-age and wharfage, to such extent as will enable them to discharge the duties required of them by law, does not affect the-character of the board as a governmental agency, or convert its action into a mere business enterprise. The protection, against fires, or the extinguishment of fires, upon a vessel belonging to the state in the control, of the harbor commissioners,, is the exercise of a purely governmental function on their part,, in the exercise of which the state is not responsible for an injury to a person employed by them for that purpose, caused by negligence on their part.</p> <p>Id.—Action ex Delicto — Master and Servant—Negligence.—An-action for negligence of a master not growing out of the contract of employment of the servant, but merely growing out of the relation existing between them, and arising from the-violation o