Brown v. Fifteenth District Agricultural Fair Ass'n

BARNARD, P. J.

The defendant has appealed from a judgment based on a jury’s verdict awarding the plaintiff $4,000 damages for personal injuries, and from an order denying its motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The appeal is taken upon a clerk’s transcript and an agreed statement.

The accident occurred on October 1, 1954, on the grounds of the defendant while it was conducting an agricultural fair. The plaintiff was a patron at the fair, having purchased a ticket for admission. The complaint alleged, among other things, that the plaintiff was in the process of walking in a public freeway maintained by the defendant leading to the horse show arena; that the defendant so negligently maintained this passageway as to allow an open ditch to traverse a portion of said freeway; and that as a result the plaintiff tripped and fell while passing over the same. In the agreed statement the parties agreed that this accident took place on the public grounds of the defendant district during the progress of a fair

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that the fair and the public grounds were under the direction, supervision and maintenance of the defendant; that the plaintiff was a business visitor at the fair; that just prior to the accident the plaintiff had purchased a coca cola drink at a private concession; that at the time of the fall she was walking upon the public grounds of the defendant and proceeding directly toward the horse show, and that the horse show grandstand and arena were located about a block and a half from the point where the plaintiff tripped by reason of the presence of a ditch. It is conceded that no notice of a claim was or has been filed with the defendant district or with the State of California.

It is first contended that the defendant district is the State of California within the meaning of the law governing suits

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against the state; that as such it is immune from suit if it was acting in a governmental capacity; and that if it was operating in a proprietary capacity it cannot be sued without the prior presentation of a claim. It is argued that the defendant district is in fact and reality the State of California, since its directors are appointed by the governor and its operations are largely controlled by the Department of Finance of the state as provided for in section 80 and subsequent sections of the Agricultural Code; that it is a state institution and state agency, citing