{
  "id": 8682457,
  "name": "JAMES J. LEWIS, Administrator v. THE CITY OF RALEIGH",
  "name_abbreviation": "Lewis v. City of Raleigh",
  "decision_date": "1877-06",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "229",
  "last_page": "233",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "77 N.C. 229"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "N.C.",
    "id": 9292,
    "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina"
  },
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    "id": 5,
    "name_long": "North Carolina",
    "name": "N.C."
  },
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T20:46:21.915598+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "JAMES J. LEWIS, Administrator v. THE CITY OF RALEIGH."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Rbade, J.\n\u201c It shall be required by competent legislation that the structure and superintendence of penal institutions of the State, the County jails and City police prisons, secure the health and comfort of the prisoners.\u201d Const.,Art. XI. \u00a7 6.\n\u201c The Sheriff or keeper of any public prison shall every day cleanse the room of the'prison, * * * and shall furnish the prisoners a plenty of good and wholesome water three times in every day, and shall find each prisoner fuel, * * * wholesome bread * * * and every necessary attendance, * * * good warm blankets or other suitable bed clothing * * * for their use and comfort, as the season or other circumstances may require.\u201d Bat. Rev\u00a1 ch. 89, \u00a7 \u00a7 9, 10.\nFrom the.foregoing quotations it will appear generally what is contemplated by our Constitution and statutes shall be the treatment of prisoners. The least that is required is, that they shall have a \u201c clean place, comfortable bedding, wholesome food and drink, and necessary' attendance.\u201d This is required for all prisoners, even those who are convicted of high crimes. How much more ought it to be required for those who have not been convicted at all, and who may be innocent of any offence, as is often the case with those who are imprisoned before trial for safe keeping.\n\u25a0\u201c All persons found lying on the streets in the City shall .be taken and lodged in the guard-house.\u201d Ordinance of the \u00a1City of Raleigh, ch. 4, \u00a7 3.\nThe plaintiff\u2019s intestate was found lying on the street, and \u25a0taken by the City\u2019s police and lodged in the guard-house. \"The guard-house is the City\u2019s guard-house, the ordinance is the City\u2019s ordinance, the officer is the City\u2019s officer \u2014 every thing was of and by the City. No question arises as to how far the City is liable for the misconduct of its officers, be..cause the act complained of is the act of the City itself. .\nWas the guard-house a suitable place in which to \u201clodge\u201d the deceased ? The jury proved the fact that the death of the deceased was \u201c accelerated' by the noxious air of the guard-house.\u201d\nIt is insisted, however, that this finding does not mean much ; because, for instance, one falling in a fit in the open .air and carried info the best house might be somewhat oppressed from lack of the free circulation of the open air, .and his death which would have resulted out of doors in an hour might be accelerated a few moments in the house. We must see, therefore, what the facts were upon which the -verdict was based. The guard-house was a small room 8x14 feet. It had no window. It had no opening connecting with the outer air or light. It had but one door, and that ..opened into a passage, and had a grate in it, and was opposite to a window which was under the grating in the pavement. Now here was no passage for the air, day or night, \u2022and none could be given. And there was no ventilation .even, except the mere contact of the air inside the cell with the air outside,'at the door, through the grate. There was nothing to drive the bad air out and the pure air in, and -therefore the bad air would stay in indefinitely. So that -it -was an impossibility that such a place could \u201c secure health .\u25a0and comfort,\u201d in the language of the Constitution, or that it .\u00e1iould be \u201c clean,\u201d in the language of the statute.\nAnd further, tbe cell is jiot only under the ground and' without ventilation, but it is under the City market-house, where congregate day and'night crowds of persons and animals, and where are kept, meats, vegetables, melons and fruits, the impure emanations from which find a lodgment\u2019 in the basement.\nA moment\u2019s reflection will teach that it will not do to have a prison underground. There must be circulation of air. The bad air will not go out, it must be driven out. And there is the greater necessity as the prisoners cannot \u201c go-out,\u201d but all their calls must be answered in the cells. And such persons as can be employed to clean them are not likely to be very careful. \u2022 <\nNature teaches us that any person kept in such a place-must soon die, and any person \u201c lodged \u201d in such a place is injured by the first breath.\nBut further, suppose the air had been pure and the ventilation perfect, still that is not all that is necessary to a prisoner\u2019s \u201ccomfort,\u201d and he must be comfortable; not luxuriously surrounded, but the demands \u2019of humanity must be-supplied ; and here was not a chair, nor a bed, nor a blanket, nothing but the cold, hard floor. Just what nature teaches' would be the condition of such a cell, the witnesses on both sides teach us was its actual condition. They all sa3r it was-offensive, and to some it was so offensive that they had to' leave it quick. And the intelligent physician called by the City, said, that while he saw no signs of death from carbonic-gas, \u201cyet if a man was so weak as to have to be carried there-having fallen from exhaustion, he would be injuriously affected.\u201d\nThis case is striking proof of the wisdom of requiring.\" prisons to be comfortable. So far as appears the deceased was not a bad man. He had a family and his employer testifies that he worked night and day to support them. He-was in bad health. He was not a drunkard, but sometimes; drank too much \u2014 a weakness so common, that it would seem invidious to call it a crime in him. He had drunk too-much, and instead of letting him go home as he asked to be-, allowed to .do, or of carrying him home as it would have been humane to do, and as he who made him drunk was-morally bound to do, he was carried to a hole like Calcutta\u2019s,, whei\u2019e he died before morning.\nNo error.\nPer Curiam. Judgment affirmed.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Rbade, J."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Messrs. T. M. Argo aud A. M. Lewis, for plaintiff.",
      "Messrs. JBusbee \u00a3 Busbee and D. G. Fowle, for defendant."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "JAMES J. LEWIS, Administrator v. THE CITY OF RALEIGH.\nPublie Prisons \u2014 Treatment of Prisoners \u2014 Towns and Cities \u2014 Aetion for Damages.\n1. Under the provisions of the Constitution, Art. XI, \u00a7 6, and Bat. Rev. ch. 89, \u00a7\u00a7 9, 3 0, the least that is required is that persons confined in any public prison shall have a clean place, comfortable bedding, wholesome; food and drink, and necessary attendance.\n3. Where A. was arrested at night by a policeman for violation of an' ordinance of the City-of Raleigh and confined in the city guard-house ire which he died before morning, and in an action for damages instituted! by his Administrator against the City, the jury found that his deaths was \u2018\u2018accelerated by the noxious air of the guard-house,' Held, that the-, plaintiff is entitled to recover.\nCivil Action for Damages, tried at Spring Term, 1877, of Wake Superior Court, before Buxton, J.\nThe plaintiff\u2019s intestate, John Godwin, was arrested bj one of the policemen in the service of the defendant in June, 1875, for an alleged violation of a City ordinance, and confined in the City guard-house where he died. It was alleged that his death was caused by the 'unwholesome condition of the pi\u2019ison, occasioned by neglect of the City authorities. Upon the issues submitted the jury found the following; facts :\n1. John Godwin was arrested with probable cause by authority of the defendant, and imprisoned in the guardhouse.\n2. The death of John Godwin was accelerated by the noxious atmosphere of said guard-house.\n3. Damages, $2,000.\nUpon this verdict the Court gave judgment for the plaintiff, and the defendant appealed.'\nMessrs. T. M. Argo aud A. M. Lewis, for plaintiff.\nMessrs. JBusbee \u00a3 Busbee and D. G. Fowle, for defendant."
  },
  "file_name": "0229-01",
  "first_page_order": 243,
  "last_page_order": 247
}