Opinion ID: 1197590
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Finding of Breach of Duty by the State.

Text: The superior court found that the State had a duty to exercise reasonable care in maintaining the Chena Hot Springs Road and that it had breached that duty at the time of the accident. Appellant challenges the finding that it had breached the duty of due care, contending that the evidence established that the road was reasonably safe for drivers exercising ordinary care. The question whether the duty of due care has been breached is ordinarily a question for the finder of fact. [1] The finding of breach by the judge in a trial without jury will not be disturbed by this court unless it is clearly erroneous. [2] It is well established that a finding is clearly erroneous only when, although there may be evidence to support it, the court is left with the definite and firm conviction on the entire record that a mistake has been committed. [3] In State v. Abbott, 498 P.2d 712, 724-26 (Alaska 1972), this court announced that the State of Alaska has a duty to exercise reasonable care to maintain Alaska's roads in a safe condition. [4] This duty of care to users of the highway is defined by ordinary negligence principles. [5] In Abbott we approved the description of that duty set forth in the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 349, comment b (1965): The duty of maintaining a highway in a condition safe for travel ... includes not only a duty to maintain the surface of the highway in a condition reasonably safe for travel, but also a duty of warning the traveling public of any other condition which endangers travel, whether caused by a force of nature, such as snow and ice, or by the act of third persons, such as a ditch dug in the sidewalk or roadway or an obstruction placed upon it. (emphasis added) The duty would also encompass the obligation to repair or remove such obstructions where failure to do so would expose travelers to an unreasonable risk of harm. The Abbott opinion also set forth the proof necessary to establish that the State's conduct fell below the duty of due care: In order for a plaintiff to show that the state exposed him to an unreasonable risk of harm he would have to demonstrate that the likelihood and gravity of the harm threatened outweighed the utility of the state's conduct and the burden on the state for removing the danger. [6] It is our conclusion that there was ample evidence to support the superior court's determination that the State had been negligent. The likelihood of the physical injury to a motorist attributable to the encroaching McGee truck was not insubstantial. Appellant concedes that the truck occupied at least one-half of the westbound lane, and evidence adduced by appellee supports the trial judge's conclusion that the truck intruded eight feet into the 11-foot wide lane. Testimony further showed that the State's road plowing operation augmented the existing hazard by compacting an additional two-foot berm of snow around the truck. Several witnesses testified that the truck was virtually covered with snow and very difficult to see at night. There was also evidence that the road surface was extremely slick. At least three witnesses testified to near collisions at the scene of the protruding, buried truck, and others detailed the circumstances which led them to conclude that the situation was hazardous. Thus, we are of the opinion that there was more than sufficient evidence to support the trial judge's conclusion that the McGee truck constituted a serious hazard. The superior court found that the truck had been parked on Chena Hot Springs Road for at least three weeks prior to the accident. The testimony of at least three witnesses goes to establish that fact. There was evidence adduced that, prior to the accident, as many as six motorist complaints were filed with the state troopers drawing the hazardous condition of the road to their attention. The first of these was apparently lodged two weeks prior to Guinn's death. [7] From these considerations the trial court was entirely warranted in concluding that a reasonably prudent person in the State's position would have foreseen a real probability of significant harm to a motorist on the Chena Hot Springs Road if the McGee truck was left in its dangerous location for any substantial length of time. It has been said that conduct is negligent only if it creates an unreasonable risk of harm to a class of persons which includes the plaintiff and subjects that class to the hazard which ultimately injures the plaintiff. In other words, the law of negligence protects only from foreseeable risks of harm. [8] Under the circumstances of this case, we hold that the trial judge properly concluded that the McGee truck posed for motorists traveling in either direction on Chena Hot Springs Road a very real risk of grave harm. [9] The State's response to this situation was limited to the investigation conducted by Trooper Kaiser on December 9, 1970. No further inquiry was made to determine whether the trooper's directive to remove the vehicle had been obeyed. It would appear that there was very little justification for the State's providing such a delayed and limited response to the situation on Chena Hot Springs Road, inasmuch as the Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety testified that the State was having no difficulty impounding vehicles that winter. There had been no measurable snowfall since late November, and there was testimony that another abandoned vehicle on Chena Hot Springs Road had been cited and impounded by the police four days before the accident in question. Nor does it appear that a prompt and forceful response by state authorities would have constituted an undue burden. The State maintains no equipment for removal of vehicles but employs various private companies for that task. There is no cost whatever to the State as a fee is assessed against the owner of each impounded vehicle. Moreover, 13 AAC 02.345(b), a regulation promulgated by the Commissioner of Public Safety, mandates the removal of any vehicle parked on a highway constituting an obstruction or hazard. [10] This is certainly indicative that the burden of impounding a vehicle is not an excessive one. [11] Furthermore, there was testimony from the Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety that, as to a parked vehicle which encroached on a public highway but did not constitute an obstruction or hazard within the meaning of the regulation, proper police procedure would have been to impound the vehicle within a week after its discovery. From this abundance of evidence the superior court drew its conclusion that the State breached its duty of due care by exposing the decedent to an unreasonable risk of harm. In its findings the court particularly emphasized facts similar to those stressed in State v. Abbott, 498 P.2d 712, 725 (Alaska 1972): the dangerousness of the hazard, the length of time it remained unpoliced, the ample notice received by the authorities, their capacity to eliminate the hazard, and their inadequate response in light of that capability. We cannot say that the superior court's finding of negligence on the part of the State is clearly erroneous. The State further argues that the trial court totally ignored the evidence adduced at trial concerning Trooper Kaiser's actions on December 9, 1970, which evidence established that the trooper acted in a reasonable, prudent, and non-negligent manner. The policy of the state authorities was to impound a parked vehicle only in those instances when the vehicle created a hazard to the motoring public. The decision whether a particular vehicle constituted a hazard was left to the discretion of the investigating trooper, and his decision depended upon a number of factors including the volume of traffic at the site, the width and nature of the roadway, and its proximity to an intersection. Trooper Kaiser's judgment was that impoundment of the McGee truck was not warranted because it was situated on a straight section of rural road in a position that afforded good visibility from either direction. Furthermore, it did not appear necessary to impound because Sam McGee had assured the trooper that he would remove the vehicle. The State argues that, in light of the position of the vehicle and McGee's promise to remove it, the likelihood of harm to any traveler arising from the McGee truck appeared extremely remote and that, therefore, Kaiser acted with reasonable care. It is appropriate to recall that [n]egligence is conduct, and not a state of mind. [12] The standard imposed is an external one and negligence may be found where the actor has considered the possible consequences of his conduct fully and has exercised his own best judgment. [13] Even if the superior court had looked only to the events subsequent to the complaint received on the morning of December 9, 1970, its finding of negligence on the part of the State is sustained by the evidence. The State's response to the complaint was essentially to exact a promise from Sam McGee that he would undertake to remove a total of three vehicles stranded on Chena Hot Springs Road. According to the testimony, another motorist complained the next day at the troopers' headquarters that abandoned vehicles still posed a hazard to traffic on the road. This should have alerted the State to the possibility of continuing danger. Even if Trooper Kaiser made a good faith decision that the McGee truck did not constitute a hazard requiring immediate removal under 13 AAC 02.345(b), it was incumbent upon the State to ensure that the vehicle was removed within a reasonable period of time. In view of the dangerous position of the truck and the fact that removal was eminently feasible once undertaken, [14] the State was under a duty to rectify this particular situation with reasonably prompt dispatch. In Kaatz v. State, 540 P.2d 1037, 1042 (Alaska 1975), this court sustained the trial judge's view that, under the circumstances of that case, a delay of five hours in setting out to correct a hazardous road condition was too long. In this case the State had at least 38 hours to ensure that motorists were in some manner safeguarded from the hazards on Chena Hot Springs Road. The record shows no clear error in the trial judge's conclusion that the State's failure to fulfill that responsibility constituted negligence. The State, in seeking to reverse the trial court, also stresses language found in this court's decision in State v. I'Anson, 529 P.2d 188, 195 n. 31 (Alaska 1974), to the effect that ... it is the duty of the highway department to construct and maintain the highways ... reasonably safe for a traveler himself exercising ordinary care; a highway will be deemed safe within these requirements if it may be negotiated successfully by all but the very reckless and careless drivers, there being no obligation to construct and maintain highways so as to insure the safety of such drivers. (emphasis added) It is the State's position that because every witness who testified at trial had been able to negotiate around the hazard without accident, this conclusively established that the road had been maintained in a non-negligent fashion. We believe this contention must be rejected. The testimony of those who had driven the road that winter was replete with references that extreme caution was required to travel safely through the hazardous section of the roadway. When questioned why he had not been involved in a collision, one motorist responded, Maybe it's just luck. The State cannot be permitted to rely upon the sharpened skills and good fortune of passing motorists to discharge its duty of due care to the driver exercising ordinary care.