Rosenblit v. Philadelphia

Citations

• 28 Pa. Super. 587
• 1905 Pa. Super. LEXIS 251

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — First school district of Pennsylvania — Philadelphia—Injury to pupil in school building — Municipalities—School Law.</p> <p>The city of Philadelphia which is coterminous with the first school district of Pennsylvania, and has legal title to the public school buildings therein, is not liable in damages for injuries to a pupil in a public school by a fall of a part of the plastering from the ceiling of a schoolroom, although the board of education and its architect had several weeks’ notice of the defect in the ceiling before the accident occurred. The ground for the city’s exemption in such a case is that the school buildings are in the actual possession and control of the sectional school board and board of public education, and that the city has no voice in the selection of the officers, agents or architects of the school district, and no power to remove them.</p> <p>The negligence, if any there was, of the authorities of the first school district of Pennsylvania was in the failure to discharge their public duty, to provide and maintain suitable and adequate accommodations for the public schools. That duty did not grow out of their right to control and manage this particular building or any other property, but was founded in the express provisions of the legislation which created the school district, provided the officers to represent it, and regulated the system of public education. That there could be no recovery from the school district for injuries to a pupil resulting from negligence, of this nature, upon the part of the officers of the district is definitely ruled by the authorities. Even if the school district was liable under such circumstances, however, the city of Philadelphia would not be liable as a municipal corporation. The city in its corporate capacity had no voice in the selection of the officers whose negligence resulted in the accident, it could not remove them from office, nor could it supervise or control them in their managemen