Opinion ID: 2123620
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Heading: Liability of the abutting property owner.

Text: At common law property owners were not liable to pedestrians for failure to remove snow and ice from an abutting public sidewalk. Hovden v. City of Decorah, 261 Iowa 624, 629, 155 N.W.2d 534, 538 (1968). And although our statutory law has imposed a duty on property owners to remove snow and ice from sidewalks abutting their property, no statute prior to section 364.12(2) has imposed liability on such property owners for injury to pedestrians caused by mere breach of that duty. See Anderson v. City of Fort Dodge, 213 N.W.2d 527, 528 (Iowa 1973); Case v. City of Sioux City, 246 Iowa 654, 658-59, 69 N.W.2d 27, 29-30 (1955) (placing liability based on negligent failure to remove snow and ice upon the municipality). See also Atkinson v. Sheriff Motor Co., 203 Iowa 195, 197-98, 212 N.W. 484, 484-85 (1927); City of Keokuk v. Independent District of Keokuk, 53 Iowa 352, 356, 5 N.W. 503, 506-07 (1880). However, abutting property owners have been held liable to pedestrians when they have caused an artificial condition on a sidewalk, such as discharging water or snow on the sidewalk and allowing it to freeze. Smith v. J. C. Penney Co., 260 Iowa 573, 579-80, 149 N.W.2d 794, 798 (1967). The liability in such cases arises from a dangerous condition on the sidewalk created and maintained by the abutting owner, as opposed to a hazard created solely by nature. Franzen v. Dimock, Gould & Co., 251 Iowa 742, 747, 101 N.W.2d 4, 7-8 (1960). Although prior statutes have imposed a duty to remove snow and ice from sidewalks on the abutting property owner, the owner's obligation runs to the city not to the traveling public. Case v. City of Sioux City, 246 Iowa at 659, 69 N.W.2d at 30. The abutting owner does not own the sidewalk; nor do the statutes give such owner control of or an exclusive possessory right to the sidewalk. The prescribed duty of removal is enforced by a monetary penalty assessed by taxation when the city is forced to perform the abutting owner's duty. Thus, under the law existing at the time section 364.12(2) was enacted, an abutting property owner had no legal responsibility to pedestrians for failing to remove snow and ice from a sidewalk. [L]iability of an abutting owner or occupant for injuries to a traveler ordinarily will not grow out of statutes or ordinances requiring him to repair sidewalks or remove snow and ice therefrom unless such liability is expressly imposed .... 63 C.J.S. Municipal Corporations § 868, at 245 (1950). See also Restatement (Second) of Torts § 288(c) & Comment (1965). We must therefore determine whether section 364.12(2) expressly imposes liability on abutting property owners for injury to pedestrians caused by negligent failure to remove snow and ice. In examining section 364.12(2) we find no language which can reasonably be interpreted as expressly imposing such liability on an abutting property owner. We therefore conclude that the district court correctly sustained the owner's motion to dismiss.