Dickerhoof v. City of Canton

Decision Date03 August 1983
Docket NumberNo. 82-1173,82-1173
Citation6 Ohio St.3d 128,451 N.E.2d 1193
CourtOhio Supreme Court
Parties, 6 O.B.R. 186 DICKERHOOF, Admr., Appellee, v. CITY OF CANTON, Appellant.

Syllabus by the Court

1. A complaint seeking to impose liability on a municipal corporation for its alleged negligence in failing to keep the shoulder of a highway in repair and free from nuisance states a claim upon which relief can be granted.

2. Pursuant to R.C. 723.01, a municipal corporation may be liable for injuries resulting from its failure to keep the shoulder of a highway in repair and free from nuisance, where such defect renders the highway unsafe for normal travel.

The accident giving rise to this cause of action occurred on August 15, 1978 at approximately 6:45 a.m. on Interstate 77 in the city of Canton. Clyde E. Dickerhoof, Jr., sustained fatal injuries as a result thereof.

This action was initiated on August 8, 1980 when appellee Clyde Dickerhoof, Sr., the decedent's father and administrator of his estate, filed a complaint, later amended, in the Court of Common Pleas of Stark County against appellant, the city of Canton. Paragraph four of the complaint asserted: "While Plaintiff's decedent was traveling in the southwest 1500 block of Interstate 77 on his 1973 Suzuki motorcycle, he swerved to miss an object in the roadway, and his motorcycle began to travel on the shoulder of the roadway. As the cycle moved to the shoulder of the roadway, it struck a chuckhole approximately 18 feet 2 inches long, 16 inches wide and 6 inches deep, which immediately abutted the roadway and which Defendant, City of Canton, had negligently failed to repair." The complaint further alleged, inter alia, that the city's negligence in failing to repair a chuckhole in the shoulder of the highway caused the decedent's wrongful death.

Upon the city's motion for judgment on the pleadings, the trial court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and entered judgment for the city. The court of appeals unanimously reversed and remanded. It concluded that R.C. 723.01 imposes a duty on a city to keep its streets " 'in reasonably safe condition for the ordinary modes of travel.' " The court held that it cannot be determined whether the decedent was out of the ordinary traveled way as a matter of law on a Civ.R. 12 motion.

The cause is now before this court pursuant to the allowance of a motion to certify the record.

Black, McCuskey, Souers & Arbaugh, Randolph L. Snow and Gust Callas, Canton, for appellee.

Harry E. Klide, Law Director and Ronald E. Stocker, Canton, for appellant.

FRANK D. CELEBREZZE, Chief Justice.

The issue presented is whether a complaint seeking to impose liability on a municipal corporation for injuries allegedly resulting from its negligence in failing to keep a shoulder of a highway in repair and free from nuisance states a claim for which relief can be granted. We must consider whether the trial court properly granted appellant's motion for judgment on the pleadings.

The standard for dismissing a complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted was set forth in O'Brien v. University Community Tenants Union (1975), 42 Ohio St.2d 242 , 327 N.E.2d 753. This court held that, "[i]n order for a court to dismiss a complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted (Civ.R. 12[B] ), it must appear beyond doubt from the complaint that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts entitling him to recovery." (Citation omitted.) After reviewing the complaint and considering the arguments presented, we find that the complaint is sufficient to state a claim for relief.

Sovereign immunity does not protect appellant from liability herein. In Haverlack v. Portage Homes, Inc. (1982), 2 Ohio St.3d 26, 442 N.E.2d 749, this court abrogated the doctrine and held, in paragraph two of the syllabus, that "[t]he defense of sovereign immunity is not available, in the absence of a statute providing immunity, to a municipal corporation * * * " in a negligence action. There is no statute which gives a municipal corporation immunity in this situation. Therefore, the inquiry is whether appellant had a duty, imposed by statute or the common law, to keep the shoulder of the highway in repair and free from nuisance.

Long before the doctrine of sovereign immunity was abrogated in Haverlack, supra, the General Assembly imposed a statutory duty and provided a basis for actions against municipalities for negligence concerning highways. R.C. 723.01 provides: "Municipal corporations shall have special power to regulate the use of the streets. The legislative authority of such municipal corporation shall have the care, supervision, and control of public highways, streets, avenues, alleys, sidewalks, public grounds, bridges, aqueducts, and viaducts within the municipal corporation, and shall cause them to be kept open, in repair, and free from nuisance."

Although liability has been imposed pursuant to this statute for other fact situations, this appears to be the first case concerning the shoulder of a highway.

In Frankhauser v. Mansfield (1969), 19 Ohio St.2d 102, 108 , 249 N.E.2d 789, the court stated that, " * * * [a]s its object inter alia, [R.C.] Section 723.01 places an obligation on a municipality to keep [its] highways and streets open for the purposes for which they were designed and built, i.e., to afford the public a safe means of travel." The court concluded at page 109 that traffic lights are as important as "median strips, safety islands, or guard rails." Applying this principle to the case sub judice, the question is whether appellant's obligation to keep the highway safe for travel includes responsibility for an enormous rut or chuckhole in the shoulder, abutting the major portion of the roadway.

Other cases have suggested that liability might be imposed under R.C. 723.01 when the defect or negligence occurs in the normally traveled portion of the road. In Lovick v. Marion (1975), 43 Ohio St.2d 171 , 331 N.E.2d 445, the court determined that a catch basin and drainage slope was not a part of the paved or traveled portion of the street and did not render the street unsafe for customary vehicular or pedestrian travel. Similarly, the court concluded in Geideman v. Bay Village (1966), 7 Ohio St.2d 79 , 218 N.E.2d 621, that because the street and sidewalk were reasonably safe for normal use, the city was not liable when an automobile driver negligently injured a...

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