Opinion ID: 1817472
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Municipality Liability for Sidewalk Defects

Text: The governmental tort liability act, M.C.L. § 691.1401 et seq.; M.S.A. § 3.996(101) et seq., provides governmental immunity for governmental agencies, including municipalities like defendants here. [T]he heart of the act, § 7, provides for broad immunity from tort liability for governmental agencies engaged in governmental functions. Wade, supra at 166, 483 N.W.2d 26. [E]xceptions to governmental immunity are to be narrowly construed. Id. M.C.L. § 691.1402(1); M.S.A. § 3.996(102)(1) sets forth the highway exception to governmental immunity. Subsection 2(1) states in pertinent part: Each governmental agency having jurisdiction over a highway shall maintain the highway in reasonable repair so that it is reasonably safe and convenient for public travel. A person sustaining bodily injury or damage to his or her property by reason of failure of a governmental agency to keep a highway under its jurisdiction in reasonable repair, and in condition reasonably safe and fit for travel, may recover the damages suffered by him or her from the governmental agency. Subsection 2(1) requires municipalities to maintain sidewalks in reasonable repair. [2] Under the two-inch rule, sidewalk defects of two inches or less did not constitute a lack of reasonable repair as a matter of law. See Weisse v. Detroit, 105 Mich. 482, 483, 487, 63 N.W. 423 (1895); Harris v. Detroit, 367 Mich. 526, 528, 117 N.W.2d 32 (1962). In 1972, Rule, supra, abolished the two-inch rule.