Johnson v. City of Corpus Christi

243 S.W.2d 273, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 1718
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 27, 1951
Docket4818
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 243 S.W.2d 273 (Johnson v. City of Corpus Christi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. City of Corpus Christi, 243 S.W.2d 273, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 1718 (Tex. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

PRICE, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the District Court of Nueces County, 117th Judicial District.

Ray D. Johnson as plaintiff sought to recover from the City of Corpus Christi as defendant, for damages alleged to have been negligently inflicted by defendant on an airplane belonging to him while same was parked at the Municipal Airport, owned and maintained by said city. The trial was before the court without a jury, judgment in favor of defendant city, and plaintiff has perfected this appeal therefrom.

The said city, at the relevant time herein, was lawfully occupying, maintaining and operating an airport outside the city’s corporate limits, known as Cuddihy Field; that on April 22, 1949, plaintiff parked his airplane on said field on the parking facility provided thereon by said city. It is averred further the city subleased for profit certain of its hangars and operating facilities of said field to private individuals, who in turn operated hangars and facilities as private businesses, selling’gasoline and sundry supplies to the owners of airplanes using the field. Further in consideration that private owners operating their planes out of said field avail themselves of the facilities of the airport and purchase gasoline and sundry supplies from the sublessees of the City, the city provides tie-down space and storage and parking space for the private airplanes. The conclusion from these facts was that the city owns and operates an airplane parking and storage place for hire at said field. Plaintiff further avers that on the night of April 22, 1949, his airplane was parked on the field in its customary and regular parking space provided by the defendant; there was a windstorm and that a portable scaffold belonging to defendant city was blown against his airplane and great damage resulted to his plane from such portable scaffold being blown over and against the plane. There are numerous grounds of negligence charged against defendant, among which are the following: It failed to provide a safe place for storage for the said portable scaffold in failing to have the scaffold tied to the wall of Hangar No. 3 at the time and upon the occasion in question; in -failing to inspect said scaffold at the time and upon the occasion to see that same was securely tied to the wall of Hangar No. 3 or otherwise stored in some safe place; in failing to provide adequate ropes, chocks or blocks or other equipment so that said portable scaffold could be securely fastened; in failing to remove said scaffold from the airport after defendant had learned upon previous occasions that said portable scaffold was easily moved, pushed, or blown by the wind.

Defendant answered by way of general denial that prior to the storm one Ernest Brown, Jr., removed the scaffold from Hangar No. 3 in order to store an airplane at the place occupied by such scaffold, and that he then placed such scaffold on the outside of said hangar and secured same with two ropes, but did not block the wheels of said scaffold; that the moving of the scaffold from the hangar was done by Brown without the knowledge or consent of any of the agents, servants or employees -of the city in charge of said airport and that it was in no wise responsible for the manner in which said scaffold was secured to the outside of said hangar; that at the time the scaffold was placed in the hangar it was properly secured.

In compliance with the request of plaintiff, the court made up and filed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The court found in substance that the City provided a safe place for the storage of the scaffold involved; that the act of defendant in permitting the scaffold to remain at the airport was not negligence; that prior to and on April 22, 1949, the city stored the scaffold in a hangar; that at *275 the time the employees of defendant left the premises at 5 p. m. on April 22, 1949, the scaffold was in a hangar and the door of the hangar was closed; the scaffold was removed from the hangar between sundown and dark on April 22, 1949, by Ernest Brown, Jr., who placed the scaffold on the outside of the hangar and secured such scaffold to the walls of the hangar by means of ropes; Brown was not an employee of the defendant on April 22, 1949; the defendant, its agents, servants and employees did not authorize or consent to the removal of the scaffold from the hangar by Brown; no employee of the city had knowledge of the fact that the 'scaffold had been so- removed by Brown; defendant, through its night watchman, made adequate inspection of the premises on which the .hangar was located on the night of April 22, 1949; defendant was not negligent in failing to discover that the scaffold had been removed from the hangar and placed on the outside thereof; defendant and its employees could not have anticipated or foreseen that Brown or any one else would remove the scaffold without its authority or consent; Brown was not guilty of negligence in removing the scaffold outside the hangar; that the scaffold was not negligently secured to the wall of the hangar; that it was not negligence on the part of the city in failing to provide equipment to secure and fasten the scaffold on the outside of the hangar; the damage to plaintiff’s airplane was the result of an unavoidable accident. In substance, the conclusions of law were that defendant and its agents, servants and employees were not guilty of any act or omission constituting negligence and proximately causing the -accident upon which this suit was based, and the resulting damage to plaintiff’s airplane; that the damage to plaintiff’s airplane was the result of an unavoidable accident and the plaintiff therefore was not entitled to recover.

The plaintiff filed extensive objections to the court’s findings of fact. He further asked the court to make additional findings of fact. The court granted some of the requested findings of fact in response to the motion of plaintiff. It was found in substance that the scaffold had been tied to the outside of Hangar No-. 3 on more than one occasion; that the defendant had knowledge that the scaffold was sometimes kept outside of Hangar No. 3; that the city had knowledge of the fact that high winds could be expected in the vicinity of the airport in question some time during the night of April 22 or the early morning hours of April 23rd; that no agent, servant or employee of defendant made any inspection of the ropes securing the scaffold in question on the night of April 22nd or the early morning hours of April 23rd, 1949; that the defendant gave permission to Ernest A. Brown, Jr., to use the quarters and space in Hangar No. 3 from which the scaffold in question was moved; that the scaffold in question was equipped with rollers, or casters, so that same would roll very easily; that the plaintiff sustained damages in the amount of $700; that the plaintiff kept his airplane stored in the place designated by the defendant -for the storage of same.

It is thought to be elementary that any duty owed by the city to plaintiff arose from the permissive parking of plaintiff’s airplane on the air field maintained by the city. It is not deemed material to decide whether the relationship was that of bailor and bailee, licensor and licensee, or invitor and invitee. . It is elementary, we think, that the duty rested upon the city to use ordinary care to prevent damage to the plaintiff’s plane.

Points of error 1 to 6 are briefed together.

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Related

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210 F.2d 939 (Fifth Circuit, 1954)

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Bluebook (online)
243 S.W.2d 273, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 1718, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-city-of-corpus-christi-texapp-1951.