Boughn v. Los Angeles City School District

ROTH, J.,

pro

tem.

Appellants, comprising the members of the Board of Education of the Los Angeles City School District of the. County of Los Angeles, the Superintendent of the District and the district itself, a public corporation, appeal from the judgment rendered against them and in favor of respondent Marian Boughn, a minor of the age of eleven years, suing by her guardian

ad litem,

S. L. Boughn, her father. On June 18, 1931, while attending the Wilshire Crest School in the said city school district, the minor, contrary to the regulations of said school which she testified had been impressed upon her on a number of occasions and which she admits she knew, played tag in the girls ’ rest room located in one of the school buildings. In the course of the game she bumped into a pipe upon which a faucet was mounted, the pipe and faucet protruding from one of the walls approximately two and one-half to three inches. The trial court found that “the'said projecting water faucet was exposed without proper or any shields or guards thereon”, and that appellants “negligently and carelessly maintained and operated the premises . . . and particularly the . . . girls’ lavatory thereof, in a dangerous and defective manner ...” The evidence is conflicting as to whether the minor at the time of the accident was running, skipping or walking. It is difficult, however, to visualize a game of tag being played at a walk. Further, it is difficult to understand how the

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•minor' could have suffered the cut or gash on the inside of her leg, which she suffered as a result of a collision with the faucet, and which the trial court found to be “one inch deep and 4 inches long ’ ’, if she merely walked into the faucet. Irrespective of the conflict in the testimony on this phase of the case, however, it appears without contradiction that the minor did not look where she was going. She testified: “I was not running. I was looking back over my shoulder to see if I could see anybody back of me. I was going to tag them. While. I was going with my head looking back over my shoulder, I ran into this faucet. No, I walked into it. I mean I bumped into it. No, I was not running then. I am sure of that now.”