Court Opinion

ID: 9550094
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:29:15.918875+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:09:53.076691
License: Public Domain

Wright, J.
(dissenting)—I in no way disagree with the majority view that abrogation of the doctrine of charitable immunity does not thereby bring charitable institutions under the workmen’s compensation laws. Charitable immunity is a rule of tort liability created by judicial decision, which could be, and was, abrogated by judicial decision. Workmen’s compensation is statutory, created by statute, governed by statute and can only be extended by statute.
In the case of Thurston County Chapter, American Nat’l Red Cross v. Department of Labor & Indus., 166 Wash. 488, 7 P.2d 577 (1932), this court said the workmen’s compensation act did not apply to charitable organizations. That case, *290however, was vastly different from the case at bar. There was not a true employer and employee relationship. A fund was raised by popular donations, money was placed in the care of the Thurston County Chapter and was used to provide food, clothing and medical services to the value of $2.50 per day for men who would work under the direction of the county or certain municipalities within the county. The work was on city streets, county roads or public parks. Neither the county nor the municipalities paid anything for the labor and the Thurston County Chapter received nothing. That case, therefore, had no similarity to the instant case.
My main reason for dissenting, however, is that in this case, petitioner, Joseph E. Loiselle, was specifically covered by the act. He was a maintenance man employed in an apartment house and as such, he was covered by RCW 51.12.010. An “apartment house” has been defined in Creedon v. Lunde, 90 F. Supp. 119, 120 (W.D. Wash. 1947), as follows:
[According to Webster’s New International Dictionary,
An apartment house ... is defined as follows: “A building comprising a number of suites designed for separate housekeeping tenements, but having conveniences such as heat, light, elevator service, etc., furnished in common.”
In Konick v. Champneys, 108 Wash. 35, 40, 183 P. 75, 6 A.L.R. 459 (1919), we said:
The legal status of the owner of an apartment house is not essentially different from that of the owner of office or business buildings generally. Such a house has been defined as a building arranged in several suites of connecting rooms, each suite designed for independent housekeeping, but with certain mechanical conveniences, such as heat, light or elevator services, in common to all families occupying the building.
An apartment house is not the less an apartment house because it limits its occupants to a given class or group of people. Here, it is elderly and retired persons. Likewise, an *291apartment house does not lose its character as such if it offers more services than some other apartment house might offer. Each standard apartment in Rockwood Manor contains 300 square feet of space with a living room, wardrobe and bathroom. Other options include more space and kitchen facilities—at an increased cost. The price charged the tenant is directly in proportion to the space occupied.
One of the reasons advanced for distinguishing between Rockwood Manor and a conventional apartment house is the purchase by the tenant of a certain space, followed by the payment of a stated fee each month. Therein the operation of Rockwood Manor is similar to the type of operation known as a condominium.
A condominium is generally deemed to be an apartment house. The act, RCW 64.32, entitled “Horizontal Property Regimes Act (Condominiums),” contains the word “apartment (s)” 157 times and in 23 of the 28 sections. The entire context of the chapter makes it plain the legislature considered a condominium to be an apartment house. Of course, there can be office buildings and other structures organized as condominiums, but by far the most common condominium is the apartment house condominium. Another statute which equates “apartment” with “condominium” is RCW 32.04.025. Certainly the common understanding is that condominium is a kind of apartment house.
The furnishing of such things as a central location for social activities, and other central facilities, does not prevent the facility from being an apartment house. There has grown up in recent times a number of special type apartment houses. Some cater primarily, as does Rockwood Manor, to older people. Some are designed primarily to appeal to the younger people and provide recreational facilities such as a swimming pool and other central facilities. They are all, nevertheless, apartment houses.
The character of Rockwood Manor as an apartment house is, at least in part, a fact question. The Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals and the trial court found it to be an apartment house. That finding was not considered by *292the Court of Appeals. The findings of the board are prima facie correct. RCW 51.52.115; Allison v. Department of Labor & Indus., 66 Wn.2d 263, 401 P.2d 982 (1965).
Rockwood Manor being an apartment house within the meaning of RCW 51.12.010, it matters not who owns it.
For the reasons stated, I would reverse the Court of Appeals and affirm the trial court.
Hale and Stafford, JJ., concur with Wright, J.