Opinion ID: 852297
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Heading: Governmental Liability and Immunity

Text: A traditional formulation of tort liability requires the plaintiff to establish a duty, breach of that duty, proximate cause, and damages. 1 Dan B. Dobbs, The Law of Torts § 114, at 269 (2001). Immunity trumps all of these and bars recovery even where ordinary tort principles would impose liability. Thus, for example, the government and its employees are immune from liability for the initiation of a judicial or an administrative proceeding, even if the action was taken in breach of a duty to act competently and in the public interest. Ind.Code § 34-13-3-3(6) (2008). Whether an immunity applies is a matter of law for the courts to decide. Hochstetler v. Elkhart County Highway Dep't, 868 N.E.2d 425, 426 (Ind.2007); Mangold v. Indiana Dep't of Natural Res., 756 N.E.2d 970, 975 (Ind.2001). The party seeking immunity bears the burden of establishing the immunity. Hochstetler, 868 N.E.2d at 426. If the facts allow multiple reasonable conclusions as to an element triggering the immunity, then the governmental unit has failed to establish its immunity. See Peavler v. Bd. of Comm'rs of Monroe County, 528 N.E.2d 40, 46 & n. 1 (Ind.1988). Of course, the government may still escape liability if it can demonstrate it owed no duty to the plaintiffs, did not breach its duty, or did not cause any damages.
In Indiana as in other states, governmental entities traditionally enjoyed a broad immunity from tort liability for their actions. W. Page Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts § 131, at 1051-52 (5th ed.1984). One important exception to the general rule of governmental immunity was the recognition of a common law duty of municipalities to maintain public roads and sidewalks in reasonably safe conditions. E.g., Glantz v. City of South Bend, 106 Ind. 305, 309, 6 N.E. 632, 634 (1886) (It was the duty of [the city] to keep all its streets, sidewalks, and crossings in a reasonably safe condition, and free from unnecessary and dangerous obstructions, so as not to endanger the persons of those lawfully using the same, and it was liable under the law for negligently suffering them to become and remain unsafe to anyone injured thereby.). Some jurisdictions described street maintenance as a proprietary activity similar to, for example, operating a municipal electric utility, and explained the government's exposure to liability as arising from the doctrine that the government's proprietary acts are not within its governmental immunity. E.g., Taylor v. City of Newport News, 214 Va. 9, 197 S.E.2d 209, 210 (1973). Others found the maintenance of thoroughfares to be mandatory rather than discretionary and therefore outside the government's immunity. E.g., Bunch v. Town of Edenton, 90 N.C. 431, 433-34 (1884). The drawing of these lines has been described as inexplicable. Keeton et al., supra § 131, at 1054. Whatever its theoretical underpinning, the duty to maintain roads did not render the government strictly liable for all defective conditions. Michigan City v. Boeckling, 122 Ind. 39, 40-41, 23 N.E. 518, 518 (1890). Rather, the courts recognized a legal obligation of a governmental entity to exercise ordinary care and skill in making and keeping its streets in a reasonably safe condition for travel by persons who exercise ordinary care. Id. at 41, 23 N.E. at 518. Specifically, at common law a governmental entity was not liable for injuries caused by accumulation of snow or ice through natural causes in public streets and sidewalks that result in a general slippery condition. City of Linton v. Jones, 75 Ind.App. 320, 322, 130 N.E. 541, 542 (1921); accord Waterman L. Williams, The Liability of Municipal Corporations for Tort § 99, at 161-63 (1901) (citing cases where negligent maintenance created liability). In sum, whether viewed as an exception from immunity or as a freestanding source of liability, unlike most governmental activities, liability for maintenance of thoroughfares was largely governed by ordinary negligence principles.
Like many other jurisdictions, Indiana abolished common law sovereign immunity for all government activities in a series of judicial decisions in the 1960s and early 1970s. Campbell v. State, 259 Ind. 55, 63, 284 N.E.2d 733, 737-38 (1972) (abrogating immunity for the state); Klepinger v. Bd. of Comm'rs of Miami County, 143 Ind. App. 155, 166, 143 Ind.App. 178, 239 N.E.2d 160, 172-73 (1968), trans. denied, (abrogating immunity for counties); Brinkman v. City of Indianapolis, 141 Ind.App. 662, 666, 231 N.E.2d 169, 172-73 (1967), trans. denied, (abrogating immunity for municipalities); Keeton et al., supra, § 131, at 1052. As a result of these decisions, most activities of government entities were exposed to liability under traditional tort theories. Campbell, 259 Ind. at 63, 284 N.E.2d at 737-38. In response, the Indiana General Assembly passed the ITCA. Acts 1974, Pub.L. No. 142, § 1 (1974) (current version at I.C. § 34-13-3). This statute granted absolute immunity to governmental entities in a number of specific circumstances, and codified rules of liability for other areas of governmental activity. Compare I.C. § 34-13-3-3(4) (conferring immunity for the condition of some unpaved roads, trails and foot paths) and I.C. § 34-13-3-3(6) (immunity for judicial acts) with I.C. § 34-13-3-3(5) (immunity for the design of an extreme sports facility, but expressly recognizing a duty to maintain the area in an overall safe condition). The portion of the ITCA relevant to this case has remained unchanged since its inception. It states: A governmental entity or an employee acting within the scope of the employee's employment is not liable if a loss results from . . . (3) The temporary condition of a public thoroughfare ... that results from weather. I.C. § 34-13-3-3(3). In the first case addressing a municipality's liability under this provision, the Court of Appeals described the ITCA as little more than a codification of the common law as it pertained to natural accumulation of snow and ice. Walton v. Ramp, 407 N.E.2d 1189, 1191 (Ind.Ct.App.1980). Since Walton, the Court of Appeals and this Court have continued to rely on common law precedents in interpreting subsection (3)'s immunity for conditions caused by weather. E.g., Catt v. Bd. of Comm'rs of Knox County, 779 N.E.2d 1, 4 (Ind.2002) (citing City of Muncie v. Hey, 164 Ind. 570, 574, 74 N.E. 250, 251 (1905)); Van Bree v. Harrison County, 584 N.E.2d 1114, 1117-18 (Ind.Ct. App.1992), trans. denied, (citing Ewald v. City of South Bend, 104 Ind.App. 679, 683-84, 12 N.E.2d 995, 996-97 (1938)). These cases demonstrate that the immunity afforded by subsection (3) is narrower than the immunity established by some other provisions of the ITCA. In Catt, a driver sustained injuries stemming from a culvert that was washed out by a torrential rain. Catt, 779 N.E.2d at 2. We noted that immunity analysis under subsection (3) required that the condition be both temporary and caused by weather. Id. at 5. We concluded that a temporary condition was one which the governmental body has not had the time and opportunity to remove. Id. Lack of notice of the condition and the demands of responding to other emergencies bear on the opportunity to remedy it. Id. at 6. In Hochstetler, a major storm felled and scattered scores of trees and limbs on public roads. Hochstetler, 868 N.E.2d at 426. A few hours later, a driver was injured when he struck a fallen tree on a county road. Id. Recognizing that the storm had caused the condition and that the county crews were remedying the situation caused by the storm, we held that the condition was temporary as a matter of law. Id. at 427. In both cases whether a condition was temporary ultimately hinged on whether the governmental entity had a reasonable opportunity to remedy conditions initially caused by weather. And in both cases there was no reasonable opportunity to respond to all of the conditions caused by the weather. Id. at 426-27; Catt, 779 N.E.2d at 5-6. Thus, in each case we held that the condition was within the immunity afforded by subsection (3). Hochstetler, 868 N.E.2d at 426-27; Catt, 779 N.E.2d at 5-6. In sum, these cases established that the government may be liable for negligence in maintaining roads, but when the government is in the process of responding to a weather condition, as a matter of law the immunity conferred in subsection (3) for temporary conditions caused by weather extends to all claims caused by that condition during the period of reasonable response, whether the alleged injury occurred early or late in that period.