LiCause v. City of Canton

• Decision Date: 26 April 1989
• Docket Number: Nos. 88-84,88-506,s. 88-84
• Citation: 537 N.E.2d 1298,42 Ohio St.3d 109
• Parties: LiCAUSE, f.k.a. Caley, Appellee, v. CITY OF CANTON et al., Appellants. ALBERT et al., Appellees, v. CITY OF CANTON et al., Appellants.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Page 109

42 Ohio St.3d 109

537 N.E.2d 1298

LiCAUSE, f.k.a. Caley, Appellee, v. CITY OF CANTON et al., Appellants.

ALBERT et al., Appellees, v. CITY OF CANTON et al., Appellants.

Nos. 88-84, 88-506.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted Feb. 15, 1989.

Decided April 26, 1989.

Syllabus by the Court

A person who enters or uses municipal land which is held open to the general public free of charge for recreational pursuit is a recreational user. (Johnson v. New London [1988], 36 Ohio St.3d 60, 521 N.E.2d 793.) If such recreational user is injured while engaged in recreational pursuit on such land, the municipality is immune from an action brought under R.C. 723.01 due to the exemption from liability to recreational users in R.C. 1533.181.

On June 26, 1984, Roseann LiCause, f.k.a. Roseann Caley, plaintiff-appellee, entered Stadium Park in Canton, Ohio. Stadium Park is owned by the city of Canton. While walking through the park after viewing a softball game, appellee fell over a cable which had been strung between two posts. Appellee was injured and brought an action against the city of Canton, the Canton Board of Education, the Canton Board of Park Commissioners and the Canton Board of Recreation.

The city filed a motion to dismiss appellee's complaint. The other defendants moved for summary judgment. On April 14, 1987, the trial court granted the city's motion to dismiss and on June 4, 1987, it granted the other defendants' motions for summary judgment. The trial court found that because appellee was a recreational user of Stadium Park, under R.C. 1533.181 the defendants owed no duty to her.

The court of appeals reversed the trial court decisions. Although it too determined that appellee was a recreational user, it held that a municipality has independent statutory liability under R.C. 723.01. It further found that while the board of education was not a municipality and thus not subject to R.C. 723.01, reversal as to it was proper because material issues of fact still remained regarding whether it agreed to assume any liability imposed on the city pursuant to R.C. 723.01.

On June 28, 1984, Nerita J. Albert, plaintiff-appellee, also fell over a cable strung between two posts while walking to the softball field located in Stadium Park in Canton, Ohio. She and her husband brought an action against the city of Canton, the Canton Board of Education, the Canton Board of Recreation, and the Canton Board of Park Commissioners.

The trial court granted the city's motion to dismiss. The court also granted the other defendants' motions for summary judgment.

The appellate court found that appellee was a recreational user. However, it reversed the trial court's "summary judgment" in favor of the city of Canton because of R.C. 723.01. As to the other defendants, the appellate court held that pursuant to R.C. 1533.181, they owed no duty to appellee and summary judgment was proper. However, because the city of Canton had filed a cross-claim against the Canton Board of Education, the appellate court held that on remand, the trial court would have to resolve the city's cross-claim for contribution and indemnification.

Finding its decisions to be in conflict with Vitai v. Sheffield Lake, 1987 WL 5561 (Jan. 21, 1987), Lorain App.No. 4045, unreported, and Russell v. Cleveland, 1987 WL 5464 (Jan. 15, 1987), Cuyahoga App.No. 51451, unreported, the court of appeals certified the records of these two cases to this court, which have been consolidated, for review and final determination.

Tramonte, Kot, Davis & Loury, Kenneth R. Davis, Akron, and Kelly McLaughlin, Mogadore, for appellee LiCause.

James G. Mannos, Canton, for appellees Albert, et al.

David L. Herbert and Joseph F. Scott, Canton, for appellant City of Canton.

Day, Ketterer, Raley, Wright & Rybolt, Columbus, Louis A. Boettler, Charles P. Royer, Canton, and Douglas Maser, Columbus, for appellant Canton Bd. of Educ.

W. Scott Gwin, Law Director, Lawrence E. Chapanar and Joe Martuccio, Canton, for appellants Canton Bd. of Park Com'rs and Canton Bd. of Recreation.

ALICE ROBIE RESNICK, Justice.

We initially note that appellees in both cases were found to be recreational users. R.C. 1533.181 states:

"(A) No owner, lessee, or occupant of premises:

"(1) Owes any duty to a recreational user to keep the premises safe for entry or use;

"(2) Extends any assurance to a recreational user, through the act of giving permission, that the premises are safe for entry or use;

"(3) Assumes responsibility for or incurs liability for any injury to person or property caused by any act of a recreational user."

Although not originally enacted to provide immunity with regard to public land, R.C. 1533.181 has been construed by this court to apply to state and municipal property. See Moss v. Dept. of Natural Resources (1980), 62 Ohio St.2d 138, 16 O.O.3d 161, 404 N.E.2d 742; McCord v. Division of Parks & Recreation (1978), 54 Ohio St.2d 72, 8 O.O.3d 77, 375 N.E.2d 50; Johnson v. New London (1988), 36 Ohio St.3d 60, 521 N.E.2d 793. The scope of R.C. 1533.181 has not been limited to only those persons entering land to " * * * hunt, fish, trap, camp, hike, swim * * *." See R.C. 1533.18(B). Immunity has encompassed "other recreational pursuits" such as sledding and sitting on a beach. See Marrek v. Cleveland Metroparks Bd. of Commrs. (1984), 9 Ohio St.3d 194, 9 OBR 508, 459 N.E.2d 873; Fetherolf v. State (1982), 7 Ohio App.3d 110, 7 OBR 142, 454 N.E.2d 564.

In the case before us, appellees entered Stadium Park without paying any entrance fee in order to watch a softball game. The character of Stadium Park is that of being open to the public for recreational pursuits. See Miller v. Dayton (1989), 42 Ohio St.3d 113, 537 N.E.2d 1294. Thus, we find that appellees, who walked through the park in order to reach or leave the softball field and who also watched a softball game, are recreational users within the scope of R.C. 1533.181. We find that both walking through the park in order to reach or to leave the softball field and watching the softball game are recreational pursuits within the scope of R.C. 1533.181.

As recreational users, appellees were owed no duty by appellant to keep Stadium Park safe for entry or use. Therefore, liability, if any, can only be imposed on the city of Canton as a municipality under R.C. 723.01.

R.C. 723.01 states:

"Municipal corporations shall have special power to regulate the use of the streets. The legislative authority of a municipal corporation shall have the care, supervision, and control of the public highways, streets, avenues, alleys, sidewalks, public grounds, bridges, aqueducts, and viaducts within the municipal corporation, and the municipal corporation shall cause them to be kept open, in repair, and free from nuisance."

When G.C. 3714 (predecessor to R.C. 723.01) was recodified in 1910, it was an exception to the then common-law doctrine of sovereign immunity. Wall v. Cincinnati (1948), 150 Ohio St. 411, 38 O.O. 289, 83 N.E.2d 389. The substance of this statute has been incorporated into Ohio law from an early date and is traceable to at least 1852. Hunter & Boyer, Tort Liability of Local Governments in Ohio (1948), 9 Ohio St.L.J. 377, 381.

Its objective was to keep the streets open for the purpose for which they were designed and built; that is, to afford the public safe means of travel. See Lovick v. Marion (1975), 43 Ohio St.2d 171, 72 O.O.2d 95, 331 N.E.2d 445; Standard Fire Ins. Co. v. Fremont (1955), 164 Ohio St. 344, 347, 58 O.O. 130, 132, 131 N.E.2d 221, 224. " * * * The general theory for imposing liability under this section is that the municipality is permitting the existence of a nuisance by failing to keep the public ways clear, open, in repair, and safe for the normal uses thereof." Hunter & Boyer, supra, at 381; Wall, op. cit.

Before sovereign immunity for municipalities was abrogated, see Haverlack v. Portage Homes, Inc. (1982), 2 Ohio St.3d 26, 2 OBR 572, 442 N.E.2d 749, municipalities acting in a governmental capacity could not be sued for their tortious conduct. See Taylor v. Cincinnati (1944), 143 Ohio St. 426, 447, 28 O.O. 369, 378, 55 N.E.2d 724, 733. Thus, R.C. 723.01, which imposed a duty on municipalities to keep their streets and public grounds open, in repair, and free from nuisance was in derogation of the common law and strictly construed. Zupancic v. Cleveland (1978), 58 Ohio App.2d 61, 63, 12 O.O.3d 213, 214, 389 N.E.2d 861, 863.

R.C. 1533.181 was enacted in 1963 in order to protect private landowners from liability when opening their land to the general public for recreational pursuits. The purpose of this statute was " 'to encourage owners of premises suitable for recreational pursuits to open their land to public use without worry about liability.' * * * " Moss, supra, 62 Ohio St.2d at 142, 16 O.O.3d at 164, 404 N.E.2d at 745. Because the doctrine of sovereign immunity still was in effect, publicly owned land originally was not within the statute's scope. Nevertheless, private and publicly owned lands both retained immunity against recreational-user liability; the former because of R.C. 1533.181, and the latter because of sovereign immunity.

However, in 1975, pursuant to the Court of Claims Act, R.C. Chapter 2743, the state waived its sovereign immunity. The state's liability henceforth was to be determined " * * * in accordance with the same rules of law applicable to suits between private parties * * *." R.C. 2743.02(A). Because R.C. 1533.181 was such a rule of law between private parties, we held that this statute applied to state-owned property as well as to private property. See McCord, supra; Moss, supra.

In 1982 and 1983, the doctrine of municipal sovereign immunity...