Janes v. Central Montgomery County Area Vocational Technical School

28 Pa. D. & C.4th 490, 1995 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 81
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Montgomery County
DecidedDecember 12, 1995
Docketno. 86-18546
StatusPublished

This text of 28 Pa. D. & C.4th 490 (Janes v. Central Montgomery County Area Vocational Technical School) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Montgomery County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Janes v. Central Montgomery County Area Vocational Technical School, 28 Pa. D. & C.4th 490, 1995 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 81 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1995).

Opinion

LAWRENCE, J,

This is an appeal by Kimberly Janes, a minor, by her parent and natural guardian, Mary Janes, from this court’s order of September 19, 1995 granting summary judgment in favor of defendants, Central Montgomery County Area Vocational Technical School, Montgomery County, Montgomery County Department of Training & Employment and Neighborhood Youth Corps, and dismissing the claims against them. On September 28, 1987, plaintiff filed an amended pleading against defendants [492]*492for personal injuries she sustained as a result of an accident at Central Montgomery County Area Vocational Technical School on July 14, 1986. At that time, minor plaintiff was a student participating in a vocational exploration program at the school pursuant to a subcontract between the school and the Montgomery County Training and Employment Program. While engaged in the industrial arts portion of the program, Kimberly’s hand became entangled with a sander. She alleged in her pleading that the sander was defective and that defendants’ negligent supervision and maintenance of the sander caused her injury. '

Defendants filed an answer and new matter, denying any defect in the sander and pleading the affirmative defense of governmental immunity pursuant to the Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act, 42 Pa.C.S. §8541 et seq. Thereafter, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment alleging immunity from suit as a matter of law and that the action did not fall within any of the enumerated exceptions of 42 Pa.C.S. §8542. hi her response to the motion, plaintiff denied defendants were protected by the Act but did not plead the exception to immunity under which she was pursuing her action. In her brief, however, she argues that the facts place the action within the “real property” exception,1 contending that the sander was affixed to the school property so as to become an integral part of the realty itself.

The motion for summary judgment is twofold: first, defendants contend that plaintiff cannot sustain her burden of showing that the sander is “realty.” Second, all defendants with the exception of the school assert [493]*493as a separate basis that minor plaintiff did not establish they were in possession of the premises or the sander on the day of the incident and that, therefore, the real estate exception does not apply to them. The court agreed that plaintiffs failed to state a claim within the exception and dismissed all claims against defendants.2 Plaintiff now appeals this final order.

A motion for summary judgment may be granted when the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with any affidavits, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material facts and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Pa.R.C.P. 1035(b). In ruling on a motion for summary judgment, the record must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Marks v. Tasman, 527 Pa. 132, 589 A.2d 205 (1991).

In the instant case, the parties agree that defendants, with the exception of the Neighborhood Youth Corps, are local agencies,3 and as such are immune from liability unless the real estate exception applies. It must be recognized that the expressed legislative intent to insulate the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions from liability requires the court to interpret any exception to government immunity narrowly. Mascaro v. Youth Study Center, 514 Pa. 351, 523 A.2d 1118 (1987).

We believe the threshold question of whether the sander is classified as “personalty” or “realty” is dis-positive of the matter. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court [494]*494has designated three classes into which chattels connected with realty may fall:

“First, those which are manifestly furniture, as distinguished from improvements, and not peculiarly fitted to the property with which they are used; these always remain personalty. . . . Second, those which are so annexed to the property, that they cannot be removed without material injury to the real estate or to themselves; these are realty .... Third, those which, although physically connected with the real estate, are so affixed as to be removable without destroying or materially injuring the chattels themselves, or the property to which they are annexed; these become part of the realty or remain personalty, depending upon the intention of the parties at the time of the annexation . . . .” Clayton v. Lienhard, 312 Pa. 433, 436-37, 167 A. 321, 322 (1933). (citations omitted)

When determining a party’s intent, the court does not consider what a particular party intended his or her legal rights to be, rather what intended use of the property was manifested by the party’s conduct. In re Appeal of Sheetz Inc., 657 A.2d 1011 (Pa. Commw. 1995).

The Pennsylvania appellate courts have recently addressed factual situations similar to that in the case at bar. In Canon-McMillan School District v. Bioni, 127 Pa. Commw. 317, 561 A.2d 853 (1989) (Canon-McMillan III), the Commonwealth Court, on remand from the Supreme Court, was instructed to determine, as a matter of law, whether a lathe in a high school wood shop was personalty or realty. The court held that an 800 pound lathe which had been removed on occasion to different portions of a school room and which was connected to the realty only by gravity and a hardwire electrical connection fell under the third [495]*495category as personalty, and therefore plaintiff’s cause of action did not fall within the real property exception to immunity.

In Wilson v. Ridgway Area School District, 141 Pa. Commw. 607, 596 A.2d 1161 (1991), allocatur denied, 530 Pa. 650, 607 A.2d 258 (1992), the Commonwealth Court upheld the lower court’s entry of judgment in favor of the school district in an action seeking damages for personal injuries to a high school student from a table saw in a high school wood shop. In addressing the issue of whether the district’s intent to treat the saw as a fixture or personalty presented a question of law or a disputed question of fact, the court reiterated,

“for the purpose of clarity . . . when property falls within the third class described in Clayton, the question of whether property is realty or personalty, is a question of law to be based on the facts as to the property owner’s manifest conduct.” Id. at 613, 596 A.2d at 1164.

The Wilson court affirmed the lower court’s conclusion that the saw was personalty for purposes of determining the school district’s immunity, finding no basis to distinguish the facts from Canon-McMillan III.

“We note, as did the trial court, the similarities of this case to Canon-McMillan III Both cases involve an accident involving a woodworking machine in a high school wood shop. Both machines had substantial weight and neither was attached to the floor.

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Related

Radvan v. General Electric Co.
576 A.2d 396 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1990)
Mascaro v. Youth Study Center
523 A.2d 1118 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1987)
Gore v. Bethlehem Area School District
537 A.2d 913 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1988)
Singer v. School District of Philadelphia
513 A.2d 1108 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1986)
Wilson v. Ridgway Area School District
596 A.2d 1161 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1991)
Marks v. Tasman
589 A.2d 205 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1991)
Canon-McMillan School District v. Bioni
561 A.2d 853 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1989)
Noll by Noll v. Harrisburg Area YMCA
643 A.2d 81 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1994)
McCloskey v. Abington School District
539 A.2d 946 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1988)
Clayton v. Lienhard
167 A. 321 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1933)
In re Appeal of Sheetz, Inc.
657 A.2d 1011 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1995)

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28 Pa. D. & C.4th 490, 1995 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/janes-v-central-montgomery-county-area-vocational-technical-school-pactcomplmontgo-1995.