Purvis v. Midwest City

1969 OK 29, 450 P.2d 890
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 18, 1969
DocketNo. 41839
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1969 OK 29 (Purvis v. Midwest City) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Purvis v. Midwest City, 1969 OK 29, 450 P.2d 890 (Okla. 1969).

Opinion

LAVENDER, Justice.

This appeal, by the plaintiff in an action against a municipal corporation for damages resulting from alleged tort on the part of the defendant city, involves the order of the trial court sustaining the defendant’s motion for summary judgment and rendering judgment in favor of the defendant city.

Rendition of such a judgment is provided for in Rule 13 of the rules of this court for the district, superior and common pleas courts of this state:

“A party may move for judgment in his favor where the deposition, admission, answers to interrogatories and affidavits on file show that there is no substantial controversy as to any material fact. The adverse party may file affidavits or other materials in opposition to the motion. The affidavits which are filed by either party shall be made on personal knowledge, shall show that the affiant is competent to testify as to the matters stated therein and shall set forth facts that would be admissible in evidence. The court shall render judgment if it appears that there is no substantial controversy as -to any material fact and that any party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. * * *”

In addition to allegations concerning her injuries and the damages resulting therefrom, the plaintiff alleged, in her amended petition, that on a stated date while answering a notice by the defendant to appear and pay her water bill — issued by the defendant in its proprietary function of operating a water system for profit — or be cut off, the plaintiff fell into a deep hole or crevasse upon the grounds of the city and sustained permanent physical and mental injuries; that the negligence of the defendant in failing to offer some warning that this hole existed and by keeping the hole secreted and hidden was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries; that the hole that caused the plaintiff to fall was located in front of the Midwest City Water Department Offices at 300 Mid America in Midwest City, Oklahoma, at a point five feet in front of the shrubs on the front of said building and forty inches east of the walk leading to the main entrance of the building on the south side thereof; and that the plaintiff proceeded to the front door of said building at an approximate 40-degree angle from the southeast curbline or 13S degrees from true north.

In addition to a general denial and an allegation that any injuries which may have been sustained by the plaintiff were caused, or contributed to, by her own negligence and want of care, the defendant pleaded in its answer that the location where the plaintiff alleges she fell, at 300 Mid America in Midwest City, Oklahoma, is operated by the city as the City Hall of said city and as a governmental function of the city. In support of this last-mentioned plea, the defendant alleged that said building houses the city’s accounting, bookkeeping and auditing offices, and the offices of the City Clerk, Manager, Engineer, Director of Public Works, Planning Director, Plumbing Inspector, Electrical Inspector, Building Inspector, and the Permit Department and for all other functions of the city government, as well as offices for the collection of water utility bills, sanitation bills, and sanitary sewer service charges; and that, in addition to the City Hall, the Police Department and Fire Department are located on the property which is known as 300 Mid America in Midwest City.

Two separate affidavits attached to the answer, one by the City Clerk and acting City Manager of Midwest City (who state that, on the date in question, he was the City Clerk of said city), and the other by a person employed in the accounting and billing office of said city (who states that, on the day in question, she was so employed), state, on the personal knowledge [892]*892of the affiant, that, on the date in question, the building at 300 Mid America in Midwest City, in front of which the plaintiff alleges she fell, housed the offices listed in the defendant's answer and was operated and maintained as the City Hall of the City of Midwest City.

The defendant filed its motion for summary judgment on the same day that it filed its answer, and, on the same day, notice of such motion and of the hearing thereof was served on the attorney of record for the plaintiff.

The journal entry of the trial court’s action on that motion for summary judgment recites that, before ruling on the motion, the trial court asked the attorneys for both parties if they desired to file any other pleading and both elected not to do so.

In its journal entry, the trial court found that the defendant’s motion for summary judgment should be sustained under and by virtue of the case of Cox v. City of Cushing (1957), Okl., 309 P.2d 1079. In that case, this court held in the first paragraph of its syllabus that:

“A municipality in maintaining a City Hall for the transaction of public business is engaged in a governmental function, and therefore is not liable in damages for an injury sustained by a person entering the building for the transaction of business because of the negligence of its employees in the maintenance of the floors of the building.”

In addition to arguing that the city was engaged in the performance of a proprietary function — the operation of its water utility system, or the renting of office space to its water department — and, therefore, as a matter of law, was subject to the same liability for tort as a private person or corporation doing the same thing would be, the plaintiff argues on appeal: (a) that the affidavits upon which the court based its decision are “self-serving declarations” of city employees of the defendant, and (b) that the acceptance of affidavits as fact deprived the plaintiff of her right of cross-examination in violation of the federal constitution and the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma, and (c) that, in any event, the affidavits did not dispose of the issue of contributory negligence pleaded by the defendant.

The plaintiff cites no authority which would make the acceptance of such affidavits in support of such a motion erroneous, and it is to be noted that she failed to file counter-affidavits as she could have done under 12 O.S.1961, § 431 as well as under Rule 13 of this court, supra. Also, the plaintiff could have filed a reply controverting the defendant’s allegations concerning its use of the building and grounds in question (12 O.S.1961, §§ 263 and 280), but elected not to do so. Under the pleadings and the affidavits, there was no substantial controversy as to the facts concerning the defendant’s use of the building and grounds in question, so, if, under the uncontroverted facts, the defendant was using the building and appurtenant grounds in the performance of a governmental function, it would, as a matter of law, be immune from liability for any damages sustained by this plaintiff and any issue of fact concerning the plaintiff’s negligence or contributory negligence would be wholly immaterial.

As we understand it, a part of the plaintiff’s argument against the city’s immunity from liability for tort in this case is a contention that the hole into which she alleges she fell and was injured was near a “sidewalk” belonging to the city, and, under the law, the city has a duty to maintain its sidewalks and areas adjacent thereto in a reasonably safe condition or to warn those using the sidewalk of any dangerous condition which is known, or should be known, to the city, and is liable in damages for failure to do so. This, undoubtedly, is a correct statement of law, and, under Lane v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1969 OK 29, 450 P.2d 890, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/purvis-v-midwest-city-okla-1969.