Merritt v. Department of Social Services, Docket No. 110802
| Decision Date | 23 August 1990 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 110802 |
| Citation | 184 Mich.App. 522,459 N.W.2d 10 |
| Parties | Inez MERRITT and W.C. Merritt, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Gittleman, Paskel, Tashman & Blumberg, P.C. by Gary R. Blumberg, Southfield, for plaintiffs-appellants.
Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Louis J. Caruso, Sol. Gen., and A. Michael Leffler and Ronald W. Emery, Asst. Attys. Gen., for defendant-appellee.
Before REILLY, P.J., and CYNAR and T.M. BURNS, * JJ.
This is an action for injuries suffered by plaintiff Inez Merritt when she slipped and fell on an accumulation of ice in a parking lot maintained by defendant Department of Social Services and located adjacent to defendant's building. In their complaint, plaintiffs relied on the public building exception to governmental immunity, M.C.L. Sec. 691.1406; M.S.A. Sec. 3.996(106). The trial court granted defendant's motion for summary disposition, and plaintiffs appeal as of right. We affirm.
Relying on Tilford v. Wayne Co. General Hosp., 403 Mich. 293, 269 N.W.2d 153 (1978), plaintiffs argue that the parking lot in this case is a "passageway" into defendant's building and ice on a passageway to a public building constitutes a dangerous or defective condition coming within the public building exception to governmental immunity. We disagree.
The scope of the public building exception has been narrowed considerably since Tilford, supra. See Reardon v. Dep't of Mental Health, 430 Mich. 398, 424 N.W.2d 248 (1988). The Tilford Court held that an entrance way to a public building fell within the exception. While the holding in Tilford, supra, may still be viable since Reardon, supra, this Court has not extended the reach of the exception to parking lots, particularly where, as here, the facts indicate that entry and exit from defendant's building is not possible directly from the parking lot, but must rather be done from an entrance off of a sidewalk. See Abrams v. Schoolcraft Community College, 178 Mich.App. 668, 444 N.W.2d 533 (1989) (); see also Hendricks v. Southfield Public Schools, 178 Mich.App. 672, 444 N.W.2d 143 (1989) ().
Affirmed.
* T.M. Burns, former Court of Appeals judge, sitting on the Court of Appeals by assignment.
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