## Facts

- Ruel McKinley Humphrey, age 59, was highly intoxicated in Louisville at about 2:15 a.m. on November 21, 1966.
- Police arrested Humphrey after a report that he was shaking neighborhood doors and delivered him to the city jail at about 2:35 a.m.
- Humphrey was kept in the basement holdover area until about 4:15 a.m., then taken by elevator to the third floor.
- Two guards testified that, immediately upon exiting the elevator, Humphrey began to collapse; one guard caught him and reduced the fall.
- The guards dragged Humphrey to the “drunk tank” and left him lying on the floor.
- Jail staff gave conflicting testimony whether another prisoner was in the drunk tank during Humphrey’s confinement.
- At about 7:15 a.m., a guard could not awaken Humphrey for court; at noon, a second attempt failed, and Humphrey was then transported to the hospital.
- At the hospital, Humphrey was unconscious with a subdural hematoma and injuries near the left eye and forehead; he underwent surgery and died on December 13, 1966 without regaining consciousness.
- Humphrey’s widow, as administratrix, sued the City alleging fatal injuries were inflicted after arrest or while confined and that the City was negligent in causing or failing to prevent the injuries.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to support a finding that City employees, or a fellow prisoner under circumstances attributable to the City, caused Humphrey’s fatal injuries.
2. Whether res ipsa loquitur permitted an inference of negligence from the fact that Humphrey suffered serious head injuries while in jail custody.

## Decision

- The appellate court reversed the plaintiff’s judgment and held the City was entitled to judgment.
- The court found no substantial evidence that City employees assaulted Humphrey or that a fellow prisoner injured him in a way establishing municipal negligence.
- The court held res ipsa loquitur did not apply because the injury, without more, did not make City negligence the most probable explanation and would effectively impose an insurer-like duty inconsistent with negligence law.

## Legal Principles

- A negligence plaintiff must present evidence connecting the injury to the defendant’s breach; custody alone does not establish causation.
- Municipal jail liability for prisoner injuries requires proof that city employees caused the harm or that the city negligently failed to protect the prisoner from a foreseeable risk attributable to custodial conditions.
- Res ipsa loquitur is unavailable when multiple non-negligent explanations are plausible and application would shift to the defendant an undue burden to guarantee a prisoner’s safety.

## Conclusion

The court set aside the jury verdict because the record left the timing and cause of the detainee’s head trauma speculative, and it rejected res ipsa loquitur as a substitute for proof of causation and breach in an unexplained custodial-injury claim involving an intoxicated prisoner.


City of Louisville v. Humphrey, 461 S.W.2d 352 (Ky. Ct. App. 1971)