Phoenix Assurance Co. v. Salvation Army

This is an action to recover damages inflicted upon plaintiff’s assignors by the. negligent operation of an automobile by a servant of defendant. Judgment Went for plaintiff and defendant appeals.

It was stipulated at the trial that appellant is a charitable institution, and the record shows that at the time of the occurrences out of which the action arose the driver of the automobile was proceeding from one city to another for the purpose of engaging in a part of the religious and charity work which it is the object of appellant to perform. Appellant contends for a reversal of the judgment on the ground that, because of the purposes for which it exists, and because of the trust character of the funds which are at its disposal, it is exempt from that liability which would attach to a business or profit-making corporation in the situation which appellant occupies under the facts of the present litigation. Upon the question thus suggested the cases in the other states of the Union are in hopeless irreconcilability, and the decisions of the jurisdictions which are ranged on the respective sides of the controversy exhibit a width of discussion which has practically exhausted the…