Opinion ID: 1793194
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: duty of water division employees to accurately locate stop box and shut-off valve

Text: Plaintiff asserted an alternative claim that the City had a duty to properly train its water division personnel to locate shut-off valves in a timely fashion and that it breached this duty. Again, the College fails to identify the source of this alleged duty. While the City has a duty to repair breaks in its own line, and the cases cited by the City will hold a municipality liable for damages caused by leaks from its own line, here, once again, all agree that the break occurred in the College's line and that the College was the one responsible for keeping that line itself in repair. [5] The College simply asserts that the City had a duty to help it find the leak and if it acted negligently in failing to do so, it can be found liable. While the City has control over the public road itself, see section 82.190, there is no allegation that it failed to permit the College access to the stop box once the College located the leak, and the College cites no contract or common law authority that the City has a duty to train its employees to assist its customers in locating leaks in a timely fashion. The City did send its engineers to the site of the leak when the College called, and the engineers did attempt to assist the College in locating the leak, but they were unable to do so. The College asserts they were negligent in failing to notice the location of the hidden stop box and shut-off valve, which were marked on the engineering drawings. As the College notes, there are situations in which a volunteer can be sued for negligence in offering assistance, for [t]he law imposes an obligation upon everyone who attempts to do anything, even if gratuitously, for another, to exercise some degree of care and skill in the performance of what he has undertaken. Hoover's Dairy, 700 S.W.2d at 432, citing, 57 AM.JUR.2D Negligence sec. 45 (1971). In Stanturf v. Sipes, 447 S.W.2d 558, 561 (Mo.1969), this Court adopted Restatement (Second) of Torts section 323 (1965), which states: One who undertakes, gratuitously or for consideration, to render services to another which he should recognize as necessary for the protection of the other's person or things, is subject to liability to the other for physical harm resulting from his failure to exercise reasonable care to perform his undertaking, if (a) his failure to exercise such care increases the risk of such harm, or (b) the harm is suffered because of the other's reliance upon the undertaking. Thus, to be held liable, a volunteer must increase the risk of harm or the harm must be suffered because the one being helped relied to his detriment on the voluntary undertaking. In the absence of such an increase in harm or detrimental reliance, the volunteer may abandon his or her assistance without liability, for the volunteer: [I]s not required to continue [his services] indefinitely, or even until he has done everything in his power to aid and protect the other. The actor may normally abandon his efforts at any time unless, by giving aid, he has put the other in a worse position than he was in before the actor attempted to aid him. His motives in discontinuing the services are immaterial.... He may without liability discontinue the services through mere caprice, or because of personal dislike or enmity toward the other. Id., cmt. c. Here, while the water division employees voluntarily responded to the College's call for help, the College nowhere alleges facts showing that the City's decision to respond or actions in responding left the College in a worse position than it would have been in had the City not responded or that the College was placed in a worse position by relying on the City. While the City employees left the flood scene with their copy of the engineering drawings from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. to respond to an unrelated emergency call, this did not place the College in a worse position than it would have been in had the water division employees never responded to the initial call for help. The College had its own copy of the drawings, although they were inaccessible. In any event neither the College nor the City apparently knew how to use the drawings to identify the location of the stop box. See, e.g., Winn v. Pollard, 62 S.W.3d 611, 616 (Mo.App. W.D.2001) (no duty existed through a gratuitous undertaking because respondent did not increase the risk of harm when he followed appellant's tractor on a highway but left before reaching the ultimate destination and appellant was rear-ended and injured by another vehicle). Moreover, the stipulation shows that the City employees assisted the College employees and the private plumbing contractor in locating the leak and provided a flow meter. Nowhere in the stipulated facts does the College claim that it relinquished any of its options in reliance on the water division's help in locating the shut-off valve or that it delayed calling a plumber because it had called the City and that this in turn delayed stoppage of the flooding. While Restatement of Torts section 323 could apply to a suit against a municipality in its proprietary capacity if a plaintiff were able to show detrimental reliance or an increase in harm, the College simply has not proved the elements of a claim under that section by showing that any negligence of the City increased the College's harm or that its reliance on the City caused it to suffer harm it would not have suffered otherwise. The dissenting opinion offers an alternative argument that because the water that flowed through the pipes onto College property belonged to the City, the City therefore had a duty to turn off the supply of water at the main, if not at the stop box. But, this argument proves too much, going far beyond even the College's arguments. Indeed, if the mere fact that the water that caused the damage initially came from the City were sufficient to make the City liable if it did not timely shut off the water supply to the property, then the City would be liable for every flooded basement and water-damaged ceiling in commercial or residential properties served by City water, as would be all private water suppliers to their customers. Further, it would be liable for the flood damage that occurred before the College shut off the main water supply line at 3:20 p.m. But, the College admits that the $1,005,506 would have been suffered regardless of the City's acts or omissions.... It was undisputed that the City bore no responsibility for this amount. There is no basis for the suggested expansion of liability.