Case Name: Delores JOHNSON and American National Bank of Florida as Personal Representative of the Estate of Dante Antoine Johnson, deceased, Appellants, v. LANCE, INC., a North Carolina Corporation, Larry Julian Ganas, and Clay Electric Cooperative, Inc., a Florida Corporation, Appellees
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2001-07-09
Citations: 790 So. 2d 1144
Docket Number: No. 1D00-1850
Parties: Delores JOHNSON and American National Bank of Florida as Personal Representative of the Estate of Dante Antoine Johnson, deceased, Appellants, v. LANCE, INC., a North Carolina Corporation, Larry Julian Ganas, and Clay Electric Cooperative, Inc., a Florida Corporation, Appellees.
Judges: VAN NORTWICK, J., CONCURS; POLSTON, J., CONCURS WITH OPINION.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 790
Pages: 1144–1149

Head Matter:
Delores JOHNSON and American National Bank of Florida as Personal Representative of the Estate of Dante Antoine Johnson, deceased, Appellants, v. LANCE, INC., a North Carolina Corporation, Larry Julian Ganas, and Clay Electric Cooperative, Inc., a Florida Corporation, Appellees.
No. 1D00-1850.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
July 9, 2001.
Rehearing Denied Aug. 14, 2001.
Stephen J. Pajcic, III, and Thomas F. Slater of Pajcic & Pajcic, P.A., Jacksonville, for Appellants.
William T. Stone of Cole, Stone, Stoude-mire, Morgan & Dore, P.A., Jacksonville, for Appellees.
. This alleged duty, arising from the contract, originates from the general facts of the case. Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 285(4) (1965).

Opinion:
ALLEN, C.J.
In this negligence action, the appellants challenge a final summary judgment entered in favor of appellee/defendant Clay Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Clay Electric). Because we conclude that Clay Electric owed a legal duty to the appellants' decedent, we reverse.
At this stage of the litigation, the material facts must be viewed in the light most favorable to the appellants. In the early morning darkness of September 4, 1997, a panel truck owned by Lance, Inc., and driven by Larry Ganas, struck a fourteen-year-old boy walking to his school bus stop. The boy, Dante Johnson, had been walking on or near the edge of the roadway. Due to a nonfunctioning light suspended over the roadside, Ganas was unable to see Dante until it was too late to avoid striking him with the truck. Dante died of his injuries later that morning.
The appellants filed suit against Lance, Inc., Larry Ganas, and Clay Electric. They alleged that Clay Electric had faded to provide, maintain, or inspect the light, as required by its contract with either the Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) or the City of Jacksonville. Clay Electric subsequently moved for summary judgment, asserting that it had not breached any legal duty it owed to pedestrians. Following a hearing, the trial judge entered an order in which he observed that there was evidentiary support for the following facts: 1) the JEA installed the lights along the roadway several years pri- or to the accident; 2) the lights were typical of lights located along streets and highways throughout the Jacksonville area; 3) Clay Electric contracted with the JEA to maintain these lights; 4) the contract was in force and Clay Electric had been paid for its maintenance at the time of the accident; 5) if the lights had been properly maintained, Ganas would have seen the decedent in time to avoid the collision; and 6) the light nearest the accident was not illuminated and had not been illuminated for several years prior to the collision because Clay Electric failed to properly maintain the light and never instituted a system to determine which lights needed replacement bulbs or repairs. Nonetheless, citing Arenado v. Florida Power & Light Co., 523 So.2d 628 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988), review dismissed, 541 So.2d 612 (Fla.1989), the judge concluded that Clay Electric had no legally recognized duty to maintain these lights for the benefit of the decedent. The trial judge therefore granted final summary judgment in favor of Clay Electric.
The issue for our decision is whether the trial judge properly concluded that Clay Electric owed no legal duty to pedestrians such as Dante Johnson to maintain the lights along the roadway. We first observe that Arenado involves a theory of recovery that is clearly distinguishable from the plaintiffs' theory in the present case. In Arenado, the personal represen tative of a deceased driver alleged that Florida Power & Light had negligently interrupted the flow of its electricity to a traffic light, and was thus liable for the fatal collision that occurred as a result. The Fourth District concluded that the utility did not owe a legal duty in these circumstances to the non-customer plaintiff. Like Arenado, the present case involves a contract between a utility and a governmental entity, but the contract in the present case is not for the provision of electricity to a governmental improvement. The contract is instead for the maintenance of a governmental improvement.
This is a crucial distinction because a governmental entity in Florida owes a legal duty to the motoring public to maintain the traffic lights and stop signs that it undertakes to provide. See Department of Transportation v. Neilson, 419 So.2d 1071 (Fla.1982); Commercial Carrier Corp. v. Indian River County, 371 So.2d 1010 (Fla.1979); Clark v. Polk County, 753 So.2d 138 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000); Armas v. Metropolitan Dade County, 429 So.2d 59 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983); Wallace v. Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Co., 376 So.2d 39 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979). And this principle logically extends to the present case. If a governmental entity has a duty to maintain traffic lights and stop signs it has erected for the safety of motorists, it also has a duty to maintain other improvements it has erected for the safety of other members of the public.
Viewing the evidence in the present case most favorably to the plaintiffs, the lights installed by the governmental entity were "streetlights." Pursuant to a common-sense understanding of that term, the lights were provided, at least in part, for the benefit and safety of pedestrians walking along the roadway. The governmental entity therefore had a duty to exercise reasonable care in the maintenance of the streetlights for the protection of such pedestrians. Clay Electric's subsequent undertaking in accordance with its contract to maintain the streetlights therefore gave rise to Clay Electric's duty to these pedestrians to exercise reasonable care in this undertaking.
One who undertakes, gratuitously or for consideration, to render services to another which he should recognize as necessary for the protection of a third person or his things, is subject to liability to the third person for physical harm resulting from his failure to exercise reasonable care to protect his undertaking, if
(a) his failure to exercise reasonable care increases the risk of such harm, or
(b) he has undertaken to perform a duty owed by the other to the third person, or
(c) the harm is suffered because of reliance of the other or the third person upon the undertaking.
Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 324A (1965) (emphasis added). Evidence before the trial judge indicated that Clay Electric had maintained some of the lights along this roadway in the past, thereby undertaking the performance required by its contract. And Clay Electric could reasonably foresee that pedestrians walking along the roadway would be in danger of physical harm as a result of its failure to maintain the streetlights. Clay Electric therefore owed a legal duty to Dante Johnson to maintain the lights for his protection.
The final summary judgment is reversed, and this case is remanded.
VAN NORTWICK, J., CONCURS; POLSTON, J., CONCURS WITH OPINION.