Title: City of Birmingham v. Brasher

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

359 So. 2d 1153 (1978)
CITY OF BIRMINGHAM
v.
Cammie Olivia BRASHER.
77-108.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
May 19, 1978.
Rehearing Denied June 23, 1978.
*1154 Thomas P. Anderson, Birmingham, for appellant.
S. Shay Samples, Earl R. Peyton and Hogan, Smith & Alspaugh, Birmingham, for appellee.
FAULKNER, Justice.
This is an appeal from a judgment awarding damages to Brasher, in a suit against the City, alleging negligent maintenance of a sidewalk in a public park. We affirm.
On December 26, 1974, Cammie Olivia Brasher fell and sustained hip injuries, while walking on a sidewalk located on the perimeter of Woodrow Wilson Park. She fell when she stubbed her foot on an elevated portion of concrete walkway.
This specific sidewalkWilson Park is criss-crossed with walkwaysleads from a public street to the entrance of the Jefferson County Courthouse. Not only were there elevated portions of concrete, but also there were cracks and depressions in the sidewalk. There was testimony that these conditions had existed for a long period of time prior to Mrs. Brasher's fall. There had been previous injuries suffered by persons as a result of stumbling and falling on the sidewalk. The Engineering Department, as well as the City Legal Department, had been warned on numerous occasions, by the Jefferson County Director of General Services of the delapidated condition of the sidewalk. Yet, the City did nothing to improve or to repair it. As late as August 16, 1974, the Jefferson County Commissioner of Public Improvements wrote a letter to a City Councilman stating:
The issue before this court is whether the City is immune from suit, and liable for damages resulting from the negligent maintenance of the sidewalk. On this issue we are presented with an attack upon the viability of Jones v. City of Birmingham, 284 Ala. 276, 224 So. 2d 632 (1969), where this court held the City of Birmingham immune from liability for a defect in a walkway within Woodrow Wilson Park under Tit. 62, § 660, Code of Alabama 1940 (Recomp.1958).[1] Seven years later, Justice Bloodworth, in a specially concurring opinion in Walker v. City of Birmingham, 342 So. 2d 321 (Ala.Sup.Ct.1976), addressed the Jones case:
Walker was a suit for injuries sustained on a sidewalk in the Jimmy Morgan Zoo in Birmingham. Justice Embry, writing the primary opinion, stated that although a contract action was available, the City was immunized from tort suits. He was joined by Justice Beatty. However, the remainder of the court had somewhat differing views. Justice Bloodworth was of the opinion that the plaintiffs had an actionable tort claim, but that a contract action was improper. Justices Maddox and Faulkner concurred in this view. Finally, four members of this court, Justice Jones, authoring a specially concurring opinion, joined by Chief Justice Heflin and Justices Almon and Shores, felt that the plaintiffs had both a tort and contract action. Although arising in a somewhat atypical posture, Justice Bloodworth's concurring opinion in Jones became the opinion of this court when his view of the tort claim was joined in by six other justices. See 21 C.J.S. Courts § 189(b). Thus, Jones was overruled.
The City contends that any overruling of Jones should operate prospectively only. Adoption of this view would require reversal of the instant case since Walker was decided almost two years after Mrs. Brasher's injury. We decline to so limit the application of Walker.
Walker was not limited to prospective application at the time of its issuance, and we are not now presented with a contract right or vested right which would compel such application. Cf. Jackson v. City of Florence, 294 Ala. 592, 320 So. 2d 68 (1975); 21 C.J.S. Courts § 194(b).
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C. J., and BLOODWORTH, ALMON and EMBRY, JJ., concur.
[1]  Title 62, § 660, Code of Alabama 1940 (Recomp.1958), was declared unconstitutional in Peddycoart v. City of Birmingham, 354 So. 2d 808 (Ala.Sup.Ct.1978). The parties agree that the City is now governed by Title 37, § 502, Code of Alabama 1940 (Recomp.1958).