Benton v. City of Santa Monica

289 P. 203, 106 Cal. App. 339
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 10, 1930
DocketDocket No. 3953.
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 289 P. 203 (Benton v. City of Santa Monica) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Benton v. City of Santa Monica, 289 P. 203, 106 Cal. App. 339 (Cal. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

PLUMMER, J.

The respondent had judgment of dismissal for failure of the appellant to file an amended complaint within the time allowed by the order of the court, after the court had sustained a demurrer to the appellant’s first amended complaint.

*341 Omitting the preliminary allegations of the complaint as to the minority of the plaintiff, the appointment of a guardian and the municipal character of the defendant, the complaint alleges that the respondent city is built and constructed adjacent to' the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and has within its confines a strip of beach land owned by the respondent, and over which the respondent, at all the times mentioned in the complaint, exercised complete dominion and control. That said dominion and control consists in the patrolling of the beach land referred to, in the erection and " construction of a wharf and other structures thereon, in the regulation and supervision of amusement concessions thereon, in the regulation and control of persons using said beach land for pleasure purposes, in keeping said strip of land clean, in the operation of various safety devices, in renting and leasing of portions thereof. Without following the allegations of the complaint as to the particularity of the dominion and control exercised by the respondent, it satisfactorily appears therefrom that the leased portions returned some revenue to the city. The complaint then alleges: ‘ ‘ That on the 14th day of June, 1925, the parents of the said Jane Benton having knowledge of the aforesaid acts on the part of said defendant, took the said plaintiff herein upon the beach land adjacent to the said defendant city, and more particularly, took the said plaintiff to a point on said beach land approximately 200 feet north of the municipal pier located in said city, and at the westerly terminus of that certain public street in said city known as ‘ Colorado Street. ’ That while on said beach land, said plaintiff received injuries which were occasioned by having a loose pile or telephone pole approximately 30 feet long, and which was washing back and forth in the waves of the Pacific Ocean, and up and on said strip of land, falling across her body. That said injuries were occasioned by reason of the negligent and careless manner in which said defendant was, on said date, exercising its control and dominion over said beach land, and more particularly because the defendant was, on said date, through its agents and employees, carelessly and negligently patrolling said beach, and carelessly and negligently protecting the public thereon. That said injuries occurred after said defendant had received actual notice of the existence of dangerous instrumentality, to-wit, the *342 piling or telephone pole which injured the said plaintiff.” Damages are then prayed for in the sum of $20,000. As just stated, the court sustained the defendant’s demurrer to the plaintiff’s amended complaint, and in the order sustaining the demurrer, gave the plaintiff ten days within which to file a second amended complaint, if so advised. No such amended complaint having been filed, judgment went for the defendant. We do not need to set out the specific grounds of demurrer because they cover every proposition necessary to be considered.

It will be noticed that while the complaint states certain portions of the beach land belonging to the city are leased, and from such leased portions the defendant derives some revenue, the allegations of the complaint do not show that the portion of the beach upon which the plaintiff is alleged to have received injuries, occurred where the defendant was acting in any proprietary capacity. The complaint simply shows that the injury was received on said beach at a point approximately 200 feet north of a municipal pier belonging to the defendant. A consideration of all the allegations of the complaint would lead to the conclusion that this portion of the beach is open to the public for purposes of bathing, pleasure and recreation. That this portion of the beach is used, maintained and controlled by the city in the same capacity as city parks and playgrounds are maintained by municipalities. We do not need to enter into a discussion of the law relative to the maintenance of parks and playgrounds, and the responsibility of cities in relation thereto as it existed prior to the adoption by the legislature of the Public Liability Act in 1923 (see Stats. 1923, p. 675), as the citation of one case is sufficient to show that before the passage of the act to which we have referred, the complaint contains no facts establishing the liability of the city. We refer to the case of Kellar v. City of Los Angeles, 179 Cal. 605 [178 Pac. 505]. This case had to do with the injury of a child upon one of the playgrounds maintained by the city of Los Angeles. That case and the cases cited show that the’maintenance of playgrounds, parks, etc., are a part of the proper governmental functions of cities in conserving the health of its citizens, and that the exercising of control and dominion thereover belongs properly to the police functions of a city. Whatever the law may have been declared *343 to be in other states, is wholly immaterial. The case of Chafor v. City of Long Beach, 174 Cal. 478 [Ann. Cas. 1918D, 106, L. R. A. 1917E, 685, 163 Pac. 670], and other cases having to do with similar questions, all deal with circumstances entirely different from those presented here. The distinction between governmental functions and proprietary functions is drawn along the line of conserving the health of the inhabitants of a municipality and the exercise of police control, as distinguishable from functions which have nothing to do with the health or police control that furnish means of obtaining revenue, or are especially such functions as are ordinarily exercised by private persons, wholly distinct from any relation to the health of the inhabitants of a city. There is nothing in the appellant’s amended complaint showing that the City of Santa Monica was exercising any functions over the portion of the beach belonging to the city, in any proprietary capacity whatever. The fact that other portions may have been leased for revenue purposes, or the fact that the city may have built a municipal pier, tends in no degree to establish any proprietary activity over what appears to be an unleased and open portion of the beach to which the public may have been invited.

The cases which we have cited, and which have been presented to us by counsel are no longer controlling in this state. Section 2 of the act of the legislature, approved June 13, 1923 (Stats. 1923, p.

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Bluebook (online)
289 P. 203, 106 Cal. App. 339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/benton-v-city-of-santa-monica-calctapp-1930.