Opinion ID: 2111373
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Plaintiffs' Appeal Against the City.

Text: The plaintiffs urge on their cross-appeal that the City of Iowa City should also be found liable for their injuries. The district court found that the city did not assume any obligation to remove ice formed by building runoff unless the city's employees were present for purposes of removing natural accumulations of snow and the icy spots attributable to the runoff were readily observable. Based on the evidence produced, we find that this is the most realistic interpretation of the city's voluntary assumption of snow and ice removal in the pedestrian plaza area. The city's policy in this regard is not the subject of any ordinance nor was it shown that any official action was taken with respect thereto by the city's governing body. Cf. Smith v. Des Moines Civil Serv. Comm'n, 561 N.W.2d 75, 79 (Iowa 1997) (governmental policies that are to be generally applied in lieu of particularized decisions in individual cases should be approved by the city council). The only formal statement of the city's assumption of snow and ice removal responsibility in the pedestrian plaza area is found in a memorandum from the acting director of the Parks and Recreation Department. Although that memorandum does not expressly declare that the city is only undertaking to remove natural accumulations of snow and ice, it implicitly suggests that action on the city's part was to be triggered by the demands of general climatological conditions. It is unrealistic to interpret the city's undertaking as extending to the removal of isolated building runoff on occasions when its employees were not present for purposes of dealing with fresh wintertime precipitation.