State v. Stovall

• Decision Date: 20 July 1982
• Docket Number: No. 5654,5654
• Citation: 648 P.2d 543
• Parties: STATE of Wyoming, Appellant (Defendant), v. Ann STOVALL and Jodi Jude, Appellees (Plaintiffs).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Page 543

648 P.2d 543

STATE of Wyoming, Appellant (Defendant), v. Ann STOVALL and Jodi Jude, Appellees (Plaintiffs).

No. 5654.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

July 20, 1982.

A. Joseph Williams of Guy, Williams, White & Argeris, Cheyenne, for appellant.

Keith G. Kautz of Sawyer & Warren, Torrington, for appellees.

David Tewell of Tewell, Thorpe & Findlay, Inc., P. C., Seattle, Wash., and Edwin H. Whitehead of Urbigkit & Whitehead, P. C., Cheyenne, signed the amicus curiae brief on behalf of Savage Brothers, Inc., in support of appellees.

John E. Stanfield, Cheyenne, signed the amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association, in support of appellees.

Before ROSE, C. J., and RAPER, THOMAS, ROONEY and BROWN, JJ.

BROWN, Justice.

Appellees Stovall and Jude were injured when a car which Stovall was driving went off the highway. They filed suit for damages against appellant State Highway Department (Department) under the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act, § 1-39-101, et seq., W.S.1977, Cum.Supp.1981, alleging that the Department had negligently maintained the highway and that the Department's negligence proximately caused their injuries. The Department stipulated negligence and damages; however, it asserted the defense of sovereign immunity, contending that "public facilities" in § 1-39-111, supra, did not include highways. Based on the Department's admitted negligence and stipulated damages, the court awarded judgment for appellees.

We affirm.

Section 1-39-111, supra, reads:

"A governmental entity is liable for damages resulting from bodily injury, wrongful death or property damage caused by the negligence of public employees while acting within the scope of their duties in the operation or maintenance of public facilities * * *."

The single issue for review is whether the words "public facilities" in § 1-39-111, supra, as amended, include highways.

Before resorting to rules of statutory construction, courts first try to assume that words of a statute have their plain, ordinary and usual meaning in the absence of clear statutory provisions to the contrary. Board of County Commissioners of County of Campbell v. Ridenour, Wyo., 623 P.2d 1174 (1981). Counsel for the respective parties have found no case in which the court's ultimate holding was based upon its having construed the words "public facilities" either to include or not to include highways, nor has our independent research discovered any such case. However, from a survey of the cases, it appears that there is an assumption that a public highway is a public facility.

The cases which either directly state that a highway is a facility or imply that a highway is a facility are more prevalent than those which set out a highway and a public facility as two different things. "(A) highway * * * is a facility, existing and maintained for the convenient use of the public." State Commissioner of Transportation v. Township of South Hackensack, 65 N.J. 377, 322 A.2d 818, 821 (1974). Another case says that when a state provides a public facility, it has the right to regulate traffic on it. The facility referred to is a highway. State v. Smolen, 4 Conn.Cir. 385, 232 A.2d 339 (1967), cert. denied 389 U.S. 1044, 89 S.Ct. 787, 19 L.Ed.2d 835 (1968). Another case speaks of highways and "other necessary public facilities." La Salle National Bank v. County of Lake, 27 Ill.App.3d 10, 325 N.E.2d 105, 114 (1975). Yet another speaks of an action brought against a private contractor for damage to real property during the construction of a public facility, a highway. Sayre v. Stevens Excavating Company, W.Va., 256 S.E.2d 571 (1979). Another speaks of "integral parts of the public facility for which the property was condemned," referring to a highway. Missouri Pacific Railroad Co. v. State, Tex.Civ.App., 469 S.W.2d 817, 820 (1971).

Other cases, which quote from statutes, use highways and public facilities in a list of words, implying that they are different. One case speaks of "highways, public facilities, flood control projects, and urban renewal activities." State ex rel. West Virginia Housing Development Fund v. Copenhaver, 153 W.Va. 636, 171 S.E.2d 545, 551 (1969). Another case speaks of the handicapped having access to the "free use of the streets, highways, sidewalks, walkways, public buildings, public facilities, and all other buildings and facilities." Burgess v. Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, 39 N.C.App. 481, 250 S.E.2d 687, 688 (1979), reversed on other issues, 298 N.C. 520, 259 S.E.2d 248 (1979).

We have found no case, however, which says that a public highway is not a public facility. The plain, ordinary, and usual meaning of a facility is that it is something which "promotes the ease of any action, operation, transaction, or course of conduct." Black's Law Dictionary, 531 (5th ed. 1979); and Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, p. 812 (G. & C. Merriam Co. 1971). The purpose of a highway is to promote the ease of travel. In the ordinary sense of the word, it is a facility. However, buildings, recreational areas, parks, hospitals and airports are also facilities in the ordinary sense of the word. The legislature set out separate statutes establishing governmental liability for negligence occurring in these facilities, which it arguably did not need to do if it intended the term facility to be used in its ordinary and broadest sense. Therefore, "facilities" here is susceptible of more than one meaning and an ambiguity exists. When an ambiguity exists, courts then resort to rules of statutory construction. State ex rel. Albany County Weed and Pest District v. Board of County Commissioners of County of Albany, Wyo., 592 P.2d 1154 (1979).

Statutory construction is a fertile source of litigation for parties and a fertile source of frustration for courts. Here, the legislature was successful in obscuring its intent regarding highways and "public facilities," if indeed it had any. Although courts resort to numerous rules of statutory construction to determine legislative intent, they are often reduced to drawing what they hope is a logical inference about the legislature's intent, knowing that if their inference is wrong, the legislature will eventually correct it. We are in that position here. We will discuss some of the accepted rules of statutory construction because they offer us help. They are, nevertheless, not determinative; we are left to make what we think is a logical inference of the legislative intent.

The fundamental rule in statutory construction is to ascertain, if possible, what the legislature intended by the language used, viewed in light of the objects and purposes to be accomplished. School Districts Nos. 2, 3, 6, 9, and 10, in County of Campbell v. Cook, Wyo., 424 P.2d 751 (1967). Where the policy is stated in a preamble to an act, that statement of policy may be considered. Sanchez v. State, Wyo., 567 P.2d 270 (1977). The statement of purpose for the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act says "The Wyoming legislature recognizes the inherently unfair and inequitable results which occur in the strict application of the doctrine of governmental immunity and is cognizant of the Wyoming supreme court decision of Oroz v. Board of County Commissioners, 575 P.2d 1155 (1978). * * * This act is adopted by the legislature to balance the respective equities between persons injured by governmental actions and the taxpayers of the state of Wyoming whose revenues are utilized by governmental entities on behalf of those taxpayers. * * * " Section 1-39-102(a), W.S.1977, Cum.Supp.1981.

In Oroz v. Board of County Commissioners of County of Carbon, Wyo., 575 P.2d 1155 (1978), this court abolished the doctrine of municipal immunity, saying that it was an unfair doctrine. The Department's argument and conclusion that the legislature did not intend that the term "public facilities" include highways is not illogical, just as appellees' contrary conclusion is not illogical. When we are confronted with two possible but conflicting conclusions, we will choose the one that is most logically designed to cure the mischief or inequity that the legislature was attempting to accomplish. In ascertaining legislative intent, courts must look to, among other things, the mischief a statute was intended to cure, the historical setting surrounding its enactment, and the public policy of the state. Saffels v. Bennett, Wyo., 630 P.2d 505 (1981). Here, the legislature was trying to correct the inequity of the doctrine of governmental immunity. It acknowledged the unfairness of strict application of governmental immunity and cited Oroz v. Board of County Commissioners of County of Carbon, supra, a case dealing with negligent maintenance of highways. Under the Department's theory, the Oroz decision would be nullified. If the legislature had intended to do that, we think it would not have taken cognizance of that decision one breath after it acknowledged the unfairness of the immunity doctrine.

Another rule of statutory construction is that courts may try to determine legislative intent by looking at the legislative history of a statute. Padilla v. State, Wyo., 601 P.2d 189 (1979). Unfortunately, because of the sparse legislative history kept in this state, peering into the past, even the very recent past, becomes as difficult as predicting the future. What legislative history we do have is as follows:

Section 1-39-111 of House Bill 122, when introduced, read:

"1-39-111. Liability; highways and streets. Notwithstanding W.S. 1-39-104(a) a governmental entity is liability (sic) for damages resulting from bodily injury, wrongful death or property damage caused by the negligence of public employees while acting within the scope of their duties in the operation or maintenance of public bridges, culverts, highways, roadways, streets, alleys, sidewalks or parking areas." (Emphasis added.)

The bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which...