Case Name: HINTON v. STATE
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1971-06-28
Citations: 34 Mich. App. 663
Docket Number: Docket No. 10021
Parties: HINTON v. STATE
Judges: Before: Danhof, P. J., and Bronson and O’Hara, JJ.
Reporter: Michigan appeals reports; cases decided in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Volume: 34
Pages: 663–664

Head Matter:
HINTON v. STATE
Automobiles—Negligence—Deer Collision—Sovereign Immunity.
The state and its agencies are protected by the doctrine of sovereign immunity from liability for damages resulting from an automobile collision with a deer where it was alleged that the state was negligent in its failure to keep deer from crossing the highway.
References for Points in Headnotes
57 Am Jur 2d, Municipal, School, and State Tort Liability § 26.
Liability for injury to property inflicted by wild animal. 57 ALR 2d 242.
Appeal from the Court of Claims, Creighton R. Coleman, J.
Submitted Division 2 June 8, 1971, at Lansing.
(Docket No. 10021.)
Decided June 28, 1971.
Complaint by Sylvia Hinton against the State of Michigan, the Director of and the Michigan Department of Highways, and the Director of and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for damages sustained when her car collided with a deer which had wandered onto the highway. Summary judgment for defendants. Plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
Samuel W. Barr (by Gary I. STdar), for plaintiff.
Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Robert A. Derengoski, Solicitor General, and Louis J. Caruso, Jerome Maslowski, and Myron A. McMillan, Assistants Attorney General, for defendants.
Before: Danhof, P. J., and Bronson and O’Hara, JJ.
Former Supreme Court Justice, sitting on the Court of Appeals by assignment pursuant to Const 1963, art 6, § 23 as amended in 1968.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
The plaintiff appeals from the granting of a summary judgment in favor of the defendants by the Court of Claims. Plaintiff filed an action against the defendants in that court alleging negligence on behalf of the state because of the state's failure to keep deer from crossing the highway. The trial court ruled that the state was protected under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. We agree. See Myers v. Genesee County Auditor (1965), 375 Mich 1; Williams v. Primary School District #3, Green Township (1966), 3 Mich App 468; and Cody v. Southfield-Lathrup School District (1970), 25 Mich App 33.
Affirmed, costs to the defendants.