Genkinger v. Jefferson County, 49587
| Decision Date | 18 November 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 49587,49587 |
| Citation | 93 N.W.2d 130,250 Iowa 118 |
| Parties | R. L. GENKINGER, Administrator of the Estate of Susan Joyce Genkinger, deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JEFFERSON COUNTY, Iowa, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Louis J. Kehoe, Washington, A. C. Cahill, Iowa City, for appellant.
Simmons, Simmons & Simpson, Robert, D. Parkin, Fairfield, for appellees.
In this action plaintiff, administrator of the estate of Susan Joyce Genkinger, deceased, seeks damages on account of the death of decedent, due to alleged negligence of the defendants. Consolidated therewith for purpose of this appeal is our case No. 2-49586, being Dixie Crawford v. Jefferson County, Iowa, et al., which involves the same legal questions. Both are here on appeal from judgments sustaining motions to dismiss the petitions.
Defendants to the action are Jefferson County, Iowa, the members of the Board of Supervisors of Jefferson County, Iowa, and the County Engineer of said County. The petition alleges that Decedent was operating an automobile east on a county highway in said county at a point where said highway makes a 'T' intersection with another county highway running north and south. That said highway terminated at said intersection with a newly graded drainage ditch about seven feet deep being located on the east side of the north and south highway serving as the 'T' at the point where the highway from the west entered the intersection. That said car passed through and over said north-south highway and into the east bank, causing injuries from which decedent died.
The petition alleges freedom from contributory negligence and asserts three specifications of negligence upon the part of defendants. They are, (a) failure to post warning signs of the presence of a 'T' intersection, (b) failing to have a sign warning of the termination of the east-west road, and (c) failure to have a guard rail or barrier against the seven-foot ditch on the east side of said 'T' intersection.
All defendants filed motions to dismiss upon various grounds, among them being that of governmental immunity. The motions were sustained as to all defendants. Plaintiff elected to stand on his petition and from a judgment dismissing the same, has appealed.
I. The question of the liability of a County, its officers and its employees for negligence has been before this court on many occasions and involving various forms of negligence. See, Montanick v McMillin, 225 Iowa 442, 280 N.W. 608; Shirkey v. Keokuk County, 225 Iowa 1159, 275 N.W. 706, 281 N.W. 837; Perkins v. Palo...
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Oyler v. State
...ministerial. Mower v. Williams, 402 Ill. 486, 84 N.E.2d 435; Shirkey v. Keokuk County, 225 Iowa 1159, 275 N.W. 706; Genkinger v. Jefferson County, 250 Iowa 118, 93 N.W.2d 130; 5 Blashfield, Cyclopedia of Automobile Law and Practice, § 2889, p. 28 This is an unfortunate comparison. The prope......
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Boyer v. Iowa High School Athletic Ass'n
...620, 68 A.L.R.2d 1429; Monroe v. Razor Constr. Co., 252 Iowa 1249, 1255-1256, 110 N.W.2d 250, 254. See also Genkinger v. Jefferson County, 250 Iowa 118, 121, 93 N.W.2d 130, 132 which states, 'While this rule of governmental immunity as to counties * * * is a court-made rule, it has been in ......
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Wilson v. Nepstad
...The cases upon which that theory depends are also based on governmental immunity. For example, in Genkinger v. Jefferson County, (250 Iowa 118, 120, 93 N.W.2d 130, 132 (1958)), the court held the statutory duty of a county engineer to maintain roads in a safe condition was "owing to the gen......
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Estate of Representative v. State
...different because we recognized and applied the public-duty doctrine well before the ITCA. See, e.g., Genkinger v. Jefferson County, 250 Iowa 118, 120, 93 N.W.2d 130, 132 (1958) ; Beeks v. Dickinson County, 131 Iowa 244, 248, 108 N.W. 311, 312 (1906) ; Held, 58 Iowa at 144, 12 N.W. at 228–2......