Fisch v. Montana Rail Link, Inc., 01-277.

• Decision Date: 10 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01-277.,01-277.
• Citation: 67 P.3d 267,2003 MT 76,315 Mont. 13
• Parties: Charles FISCH, Plaintiff, v. MONTANA RAIL LINK, INC., and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Co., Defendants. Montana Rail Link, Inc., Third-Party Plaintiff and Appellant, v. County of Gallatin, Third-Party Defendant and Respondent.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

67 P.3d 267

2003 MT 76

315 Mont. 13

Charles FISCH, Plaintiff, v. MONTANA RAIL LINK, INC., and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Co., Defendants.

Montana Rail Link, Inc., Third-Party Plaintiff and Appellant, v. County of Gallatin, Third-Party Defendant and Respondent.

No. 01-277.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs January 17, 2002.

Decided April 10, 2003.

Ronald B. MacDonald and Paul N. Tranel, Datsopoulos, MacDonald and Lind, P.C., Missoula, Montana, for appellant.

Barry G. O'Connell, Moore, O'Connell & Refling, P.C., Bozeman, Montana, for respondent.

Justice JIM RICE delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶ 1 Montana Rail Link, Inc. (MRL), appeals the summary judgment dismissal of Gallatin County (County) as a third-party defendant in a negligence action involving the collision of a train with a truck driven by Charles Fisch at a railroad crossing on a county road. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶ 2 Shortly after 11:00 a.m. on July 9, 1998, a westbound MRL train collided with a fully loaded dump truck at the North Alaska Road Crossing just outside the city limits and east of Belgrade, Montana. Moments before the accident, the driver of the truck, Charles Fisch, pulled out from the gravel pit located approximately 200 yards southeast of the Crossing. The North Alaska Road is about 16 feet wide and traverses the railroad right-of-way, crossing the MRL mainline and a second set of siding tracks. The southern approach to the Crossing intersects the mainline at a 52-degree angle, an angle Fisch described in his Amended Complaint as "skewed." At the time of the accident, the southern approach was marked by a standard yellow warning sign; non-mechanical, X-shaped crossbucks; and a stop sign.

¶ 3 Fisch sustained catastrophic injuries as a result of the collision. He filed an action against Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), which owns the railroad right-of-way, and MRL, which leases trackage. Fisch alleged the railroad corporations were negligent for running the train at a dangerous speed, failing to sound the locomotive whistle, and failing to install adequate safety features to protect drivers from the dangers presented by the Crossing. BNSF reached a settlement with Fisch and was dismissed from the case.

¶ 4 The mainline track where the collision occurred was constructed in 1883 by the Northern Pacific Railway (NPRR). The North Alaska Road, established in 1898, originally followed a section line north to approximately 200 feet from the tracks. At that point, the road turned and ran along the southern edge of the railroad right-of-way in a westerly direction into the town of Belgrade. In 1923, the County sought to establish a crossing on the North Alaska Road. An entry in the Gallatin County Commissioners' Journal on December 29, 1923, records the following:

The Board received the following communication from Roadmaster Nordquist of the NOR PAC RY CO—

"The Railway Company has now authorized Gallatin County to proceed and install public highway crossing over the Northern Pacific right-of-way and track or section line about one-half mile east of Belgrade, as per your request.

"The Northern Pacific is to furnish the necessary planking and pay the cost of placing same, and Gallatin County is to do the grading up to the track on both sides.

"With this understanding, you may now commence to work at any time that it seems desirable for the County."

(Punctuation original.) The North Alaska Road Crossing remained in public use continuously from its establishment until the crossing was relocated in 1999.

¶ 5 MRL filed a Third Party Complaint against Gallatin County and alleged, among other claims, that the County negligently designed and constructed the North Alaska Road to intersect with the railroad's mainline at a hazardous angle. By Answer, the County admitted it was properly joined as a third party and that it had on occasion performed maintenance on the North Alaska Road. The County denied all allegations of negligence regarding the design, construction or maintenance of the roadway. The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the County on the issue of liability. MRL moved for reconsideration, which the court denied.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 6 Our standard of review on appeal from summary judgment is de novo and we apply the same criteria as the district court based on Rule 56, M.R.Civ.P. Mickelson v. Montana Rail Link, Inc., 2000 MT 111, ¶ 61, 299 Mont. 348, ¶ 61, 999 P.2d 985, ¶ 61 (citing Bruner v. Yellowstone County (1995), 272 Mont. 261, 264, 900 P.2d 901, 903). We set forth our inquiry in Bruner as follows:

The movant must demonstrate that no genuine issues of material fact exist. Once this has been accomplished, the burden then shifts to the non-moving party to prove, by more than mere denial and speculation, that a genuine issue does exist. Having determined that genuine issues of fact do not exist, the court must then determine whether the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. We review the legal determinations made by a district court as to whether the court erred.

Mickelson, ¶ 61, 999 P.2d 985 (quoting Bruner, 272 Mont. at 264-65, 900 P.2d at 903).

¶ 7 This Court has routinely stated that the purpose of summary judgment is to eliminate unnecessary trials, but that summary adjudication should "never be substituted for a trial if a material factual controversy exists." Boyes v. Eddie, 1998 MT 311, ¶ 16, 292 Mont. 152, ¶ 16, 970 P.2d 91, ¶ 16 (citations omitted).

DISCUSSION

¶ 8 Summary judgment favoring a defendant is proper when the plaintiff fails to establish an element material to the negligence claim. Bickler v. Racquet Club Heights Associates (1993), 258 Mont. 19, 23, 850 P.2d 967, 970 (citation omitted). Proof of negligence consists of four elements: (1) existence of a duty; (2) breach of that duty; (3) causation; and (4) damages. Abraham v. Nelson, 2002 MT 94, ¶ 11, 309 Mont. 366, ¶ 11, 46 P.3d 628, ¶ 11 (citations omitted). Whether a duty is owed from one party to another is a question of law. Nautilus v. First National Insurance (1992), 254 Mont. 296, 299, 837 P.2d 409, 411 (citing Roy v. Neibauer (1981), 191 Mont. 224, 226, 623 P.2d 555, 556). Here, we conclude that analysis of the element of duty is determinative.

¶ 9 The District Court found the following facts to be undisputed: the County graded and maintained the North Alaska Road through the railroad right-of-way; the railroad corporations never granted a roadway easement to the County; use of the roadway was permissive and no adverse use by the County supported an easement by prescription; railroad owners and operators that preceded MRL approved the North Alaska Road Crossing as it was constructed; MRL generally approved and adopted the crossing "as is;" and MRL failed to request the County or any other entity to alter the crossing until after Fisch's accident. The court also took notice of the abundance of "odd" angles at railroad-highway intersections in Montana. Concluding that the County owed no duty to MRL concerning the North Alaska Road Crossing, the court dismissed MRL's third party complaint against the County by summary judgment.

¶ 10 MRL cites Buck v. State (1986), 222 Mont. 423, 723 P.2d 210, for the principle that the County has a duty "to construct and maintain its highways so that no latent nor hidden defect or trap thereon constitutes an unreasonable danger to persons and vehicles." Buck, 222 Mont. at 429, 723 P.2d at 214 (citing 39 Am.Jur.2d 887 Highways, Streets, and Bridges § 489), overruled on other grounds by Dobrocke v. City of Columbia Falls, 2000 MT 179, 300 Mont. 348, 8 P.3d 71. MRL claims that the County breached this duty by constructing the North Alaska Road Crossing at a dangerous, 52-degree angle of intersection and that this unsafe design was a contributing factor in causing the accident. Asserting that the existence of the County's duty can only be resolved after a jury has determined whether the skewed southern approach of the North Alaska Road to MRL's main line was a cause of the accident, MRL contends that summary judgment was inappropriate.

¶ 11 The evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party in a summary judgment proceeding, and all reasonable inferences will be drawn in favor of the party opposing summary judgment. Mickelson, ¶ 62, 999 P.2d 985 (citing Oliver v. Stimson Lumber Co., 1999 MT 328, ¶ 22, 297 Mont. 336, ¶ 22, 993 P.2d 11, ¶ 22). Accordingly, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to MRL and draw all reasonable inferences in its favor. MRL maintains that the County presented no evidence to controvert the testimony of traffic engineer Dr. Kenneth Heathington, an expert witness for Charles Fisch, who stated: "There are some roadway geometrics of the crossing on Alaska Road which have a negative impact on safety." Hence, for purposes of our analysis, we accept an inference that the angle of intersection created visibility problems for Fisch as he approached the North Alaska Road Crossing from the south and that the skewed angle was a factor causing the accident.

¶ 12 MRL's second argument against summary judgment is that factual issues exist regarding whether the County breached its duty to maintain a reasonably safe roadway by designing and constructing the North Alaska Road at an unsafe angle to the tracks and allowing that unsafe condition to persist. The District Court noted that NPRR authorized the County to install the roadway on the section line in 1923. MRL contends that the court ignored the historical fact that when NPRR did so, it also presented the County with a choice of crossing locations. The 1923 communication from NPRR to the Gallatin County Commissioners gave the County permission "to install [a] public highway crossing over the Northern Pacific right-of-way and track or [sic] section line about one-half mile east of Belgrade." MRL argues that the County had...