Anderson v. Lyon County, 55443

• Decision Date: 25 April 1973
• Docket Number: No. 55443,55443
• Parties: Clifford ANDERSON and Irene Louise Anderson, Appellants, v. LYON COUNTY, Iowa, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 719

206 N.W.2d 719

Clifford ANDERSON and Irene Louise Anderson, Appellants, v. LYON COUNTY, Iowa, Appellee.

No. 55443.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

April 25, 1973.

David J. Stein, Milford, for appellants.

Fisher & DeWaay, Rock Rapids, for appellee.

Heard before MOORE, C.J., and RAWLINGS, REES, REYNOLDSON and HARRIS, JJ.

REYNOLDSON, Justice.

This law action against defendant county was brought to jury trial by plaintiffs Clifford Anderson (driver) and Irene Louise Anderson (passenger) for personal injuries and property damage sustained when the car in which they were traveling fell into deep holes in defendant county's road. Plaintiffs appeal from adverse verdict directed by trial court at the conclusion of all evidence. We reverse and remand.

On the night of April 7, 1969, a flood washed out large pits on both sides of a bridge located on east-west Lyon County blacktop road L--20, approximately two miles east of the town of George. Repair was delayed and the county attempted to erect and maintain certain barricades and warnings. The existence, sufficiency, and maintenance of these devices at the time of plaintiffs' accident on May 26, 1969, were sharply contested in the evidence at trial.

County's motion for directed verdict contained the usual grounds reciting plaintiffs' failure to prove negligence on the part of the county, asserting the proof established the contributory negligence of each plaintiff, and relying on the alleged obligation of the court to set aside verdicts for plaintiffs in the event the case ws submitted to the jury.

I. Basic to our review of trial court's ruling are certain well established propositions. In considering the propriety of a motion for directed verdict the court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion was made. Rule 344(f)(2), Rules of Civil Procedure. A movant for a directed verdict may be considered as admitting the truth of all evidence offered by the adverse party and every favorable inference which may be fairly and reasonably deducted therefrom. Schneberger v. Glenn, 176 N.W.2d 782 (Iowa 1970); Reserve Insurance Company v. Johnson, 260 Iowa 740, 150 N.W.2d 632 (1967).

With these rules in mind, we summarize a portion of the evidence supporting plaintiffs' claims.

The holes at the bridge were first discovered when a motorist dropped into them on April 8, 1969. Through traffic across the bridge was impossible. At that time the county attempted to limit travel on the blacktop road with snow fence barricades constructed to be thrown open by farmers still using portions of the road east of the washouts for field and home entrances. As plaintiffs were traveling west, only warning devices east of the washouts are pertinent to this litigation.

The first barricade and devices were erected at the first intersection east of the scene of the accident, a distance of about one-half mile. The second and last barricade and devices were placed at an unaffected bridge some distance east of the flood-damaged bridge. There were no barricades or warning devices controlling west-bound traffic at the site of the washouts, where the bridge had no approaches. Portable signs were established at certain of the intersections east of the bridge. After the erection of these devices and before plaintiffs' accident the barricades, lights and signs had been tampered with several times, to the extent a deputy sheriff was posted in the vicinity one night in an attempt to apprehend those responsible. On a prior occasion, an unknown motorist had driven through one of the snow fence installations, but it had been replaced.

About dusk at approximately 9:00 P.M. on May 26, 1969, plaintiffs, husband and wife, were proceeding westward on the blacktop road. They were going to the town of George, where a young relative was being graduated from high school. Plaintiffs were unfamiliar with this road and had no prior knowledge of the defects at the bridge. Both testified they saw no barricades, signs or other warning devices, except plaintiff driver testified he saw two rolls of snow fence piled up along the south side of the road and thought one carried a sign about road repair. He drove over one spot which appeared to have been recently patched. He thought the repair work was completed. He necessarily crossed over the first bridge where the last barricade was initially erected. He saw another spot which also appeared to have been recently patched. As he was upon it he saw it was a deep hole in the road. His car partially jumped that hole, skidded across the second bridge and fell into a similar washout, 10 to 15 feet deep, on the west side.

Plaintiffs called as a witness Dick M. Kruse, an employee of defendant county responsible for checking on the warning devices in question. He testified he checked the barricades at about 6:30 P.M. on the evening of the accident and they were half open so he closed them. An hour or so after the accident he checked the devices on the east side of the bridge and found the easternmost snow fence open on the south side and the one at the first bridge open on the north side.

Neither Kruse nor any witness for the county was familiar with the Uniform Manual for Control Devices on Highways in Iowa. Plaintiffs' evidence proved the manual, promulgated by the Iowa State Highway Commission, is generally used as a standard for erection of signs on county, state and city highways. Their expert witness testified in this situation the accepted standard, found in the publication, would be warning signs at 1000 and 500 feet and a 'class 1' fixed barricade at the site of the danger. Such a barricade would be made of 8 or 10 inch by 2 inch wood beams extending shoulder to shoulder, painted black and white diagonally, with the top board about five feet above the highway. There was room between the last farm entryway and the easternmost pit to construct such a permanent barricade.

Evidence was introduced without objection that following plaintiffs' accident such permanent-type barriers were erected on both sides of the washouts.

A defense witness, employee of the county, testified he frequently saw the two snow fence barricades before plaintiffs' accident. The easternmost barricade was open on the south side of the road. The next barricade was open on the north side of the road. Plaintiffs' witness Petersen testified when he observed the easternmost barrier at about midnight following the accident, it consisted of a new snow fence stretched completely across the road. He got fresh red paint on his hands. A steel post had been freshly driven into the middle of the road to support the snow fence.

The deputy sheriff testified on deposition he was the first to inspect the devices east of the bridge after the accident, at about 10:45 P.M. to 11:00 P.M., and at that time two snow fence barriers were both open on the north side of the road. This is consistent with plaintiffs' testimony they never left their right-hand side of the highway nor encountered obstacles in proceeding toward the washouts. Some of this testimony of defendant's witness was corrected from the witness stand, but the jury could have believed his deposition testimony brought out at trial.

Another witness for plaintiffs corroborated their claim there was no warning or detour sign at the intersection at which they came onto the blacktop, some five miles east of the washouts.

...