Court Opinion

ID: 9565221
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:16:59.834061+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:28.591664
License: Public Domain

Felton, J.,
dissenting. I am of the opinion that there is no authoritative Georgia decision on the principal question involved, dealt with by the majority, and that the action will lie. I do not think it can be successfully urged that the work being done by the City of Atlanta on the streets and sidewalks was a purely governmental function and would be so considered if the question of working a prisoner was not involved.. The combination of the two functions, governmental and ministerial, causes the difficulty in this case. I do not think the case of Nisbet v. City of Atlanta, supra, is controlling. One reason is that the dual capacity phase is not mentioned. This fact leads me to believe that the court considered that the inattention to the prisoner was the proximate cause of the death and not the injury upon the streets. It will be noted that that was a death case and not one for personal injuries. Another reason why I think the Nisbet case was considered by the judge, deciding it as a confinement in jail case is that the court cited Wilson v. Mayor &c. of Macon, 88 Ga. 455, and stated that it was directly in point. The Wilson case holds that a municipal corporation is not liable'for-personal injuries sustained by one prisoner at the hands of another confined in the same cell. It would seem also that the court in Gray v. Griffin, 111 Ga. 361 regarded the Nisbet case as a confinement in jail case and did not regard it *887as one involving two functions of a municipality, as this case does. The answer to the question whether the instant action will lie rests in the answer to the question as to which function was dominant and which subordinate, secondary and incidental. In my opinion, the ministerial function was dominant and the governmental function of working the prisoner was incidental. In the first place the city would have done the work if it had had no prisoners to help do it. In .the next place I think we would have to hold that the governmental function was incidental if some other citizen, one not in prison, and not working on the job, had been injured by what a prisoner on the job had done or neglected to do under circumstances where the city would be liable if a free agent had caused the injury rather than a prisoner. I do not think that any court would hold the city immune from suit in such a case on the ground that when the prisoner committed the negligent act or omission, the city was engaged in a purely governmental function. There are but few cases involving this precise point. Alabama follows the reasoning set forth above and even goes to the extent of allowing recovery for an assault by a guard on a prisoner in the course of the work. Hillman v. City of Anniston, 214 Ala. 522 (108 So. 539, 46 A. L. R. 89). See also the same case in 220 Ala. 505 (126 So. 169), and 216 Ala. 661 (114 So. 55). The Florida Supreme Court followed Alabama in Ballard v. City of Tampa, 124 Fla. 457 (168 So. 654). To the contrary are Warren v. Town of Booneville, 151 Miss. 457 (118 So. 290), and Savage v. City of Tulsa, 174 Okla. 416 (50 Pac. 712). In some cases the doctrine of governmental immunity is indispensable. In many cases our courts have extended the doctrine beyond reason and often contrary to precedent. “The modern tendency is to restrict rather than extend the doctrine of municipal immunity.” 38 Am. Jur. 266-7, § 573. A majority of cases seem to hold that where the two functions are combined, it is impracticable to separate them and that the rule as to private activities (or ministerial functions) must be followed. 38 Am. Jur. 305, § 608.