Opinion ID: 1841473
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Business District

Text: The concept of a business district applicable in this case originates in a 1938 enactment of the Mississippi Legislature. Miss. Code Ann. § 63-3-139(a) (1972) provides: Business district means the territory contiguous to and including a highway when 50 per cent or more of the frontage thereon for a distance of 300 feet or more is occupied by buildings in use for business. The applicable federal definition, codified in 49 C.F.R. § 390.12 (1983), is essentially the same. The term business district means the territory contiguous to and including a highway when within any 600 feet along such highway there are buildings in use for business or industrial purposes, ..., which occupy at least 300 feet of frontage on one side or 300 feet collectively on both sides of the highway. Through Instructions Nos. 8 and 12, the trial judge gave the jury the definition of business district found in § 63-3-139(a) and § 390.12 and then, via Instructions Nos. 11, 27, 28, 37 and 38, asked the jury whether the site of the accident was one. To be sure, the real property abutting the frontage road is all zoned commercial. There are a number of businesses whose premises are situated within 300 feet of the scene of the accident. The distance from the west edge of the southbound traffic lanes of I-55 to the southeast corner of the McGhee Building, is approximately 178 feet; to the southeast corner of the Steak House is approximately 152 feet; to the southeast corner of the Burger King is approximately 127 feet; and to the southeast corner of Holmes Volkswagen is approximately 118 feet. Proceeding south from the scene of the accident, the main portion of the Holiday Inn motel building is approximately 140 feet from the west edge of the southbound traffic lanes of I-55. We hold, nevertheless, as a matter of law, a limited-access interstate highway such as I-55 is not within a business or residence district within the meaning either of the Uniform Highway Traffic Regulation Law, codified in §§ 63-3-1 et seq., or of Federal Highway Administration Regulation § 390.12. This is so even though the area in question may be found within the corporate limits of an incorporated municipality. It is no less so even if businesses or residences may be geographically proximate and highly visible so long as they front on frontage or access roads and not on the interstate highway itself. First and narrowly, the area in question is not within a business district because it does not meet the plain language of either the statute or the regulation. The definitions we have been given refer to businesses located on lands contiguous to and including a highway when 50 percent or more of the frontage thereon for a distance of 300 feet or more is occupied by buildings in use for business. None of the territory contiguous to the frontage on Interstate 55 is used for business. What exists to the westerly (or right-hand) side of I-55 is a grassy depression and embankment adjoined by a frontage road which itself provides two lanes of travel. The businesses in the area front on the frontage road, not on I-55. More fundamentally, a controlled-access interstate highway running through a business area simply does not have the attributes of a street or highway running through a business or residence district as contemplated by our legislature in the year 1938. We emphasize the scheme of the statute. The safety obligations imposed upon the drivers of automobiles stopping on highways at night are greater if highways are outside a business district than if they are within a business district. The reasons why this is so apparent: there is simply greater danger of an accident outside of a business district. For one thing, outside a business district, the maximum speed limit is commonly much higher than that allowed within a business district. Vehicles approaching a stalled or parked vehicle on a highway outside a business district would be expected to be travelling faster and thus have less time to stop than within a business district. Moreover, lighting conditions are reasonably expected to be much better within the business district than outside it. Inside a business or residence district cars are regularly parked on the side of the road. Encountering a parked or stalled car is simply something that one should reasonably anticipate within a business or residence district. An interstate expressway that goes through heavily populated municipal areas is designed to speed the flow of traffic and, as much as possible, to simulate the traffic conditions found on all other parts of the interstate system. Motorists reasonably expect that they will encounter no stopped vehicles within regular lanes of travel. Indeed, the system is designed so that the driver will be free from worry about turning, slow moving or stalled automobiles. Except at rush hour times, the motorist utilizing I-55 or the other interstate highways of Jackson normally slows his pace little from that he would employ 25 miles north of town where clearly he would be outside a business district. We have no cases which consider whether an interstate highway within a municipality may be considered a highway within a business district within the meaning and comtemplation of § 63-3-903(1). However, Powers v. Malley, 302 So.2d 262 (Miss. 1974), is a step toward today's decision. The accident in Powers occurred on U.S. Highway 90 along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. That the incident in question took place within the corporate limits of Long Beach did not prevent the Court from holding that it was outside a business district. A recent case from our sister state of Louisiana is more nearly on point. Butler v. Travelers Insurance Co., 323 So.2d 250 (La. Ct. App. 1975), arose out of an accident on Interstate Highway 10, and elevated, controlled-access highway, in the heart of Baton Rouge. The Court held that a section of the interstate highway system with high speed limits and controlled access is not rendered within a business district merely because the section in question is within the proximity of a business or residential district. 323 So.2d at 254. Without further ado, the trial judge should have held as a matter of law that the scene of the accident was outside of a business district. We regard this as so whether Mississippi's § 63-3-139 or the Federal Highway Administration's § 390.12 be deemed of controlling force. [5] Because the submission of this issue to the jury, considering the structure of the other state statutes and federal regulations, could reasonably have produced the defense verdict, the error rises to reversible proportions. Because of her failure to object in the trial court in conformity with our Rule 42 and because she requested and was granted three equally bad instructions, Appellant Administratrix is precluded from taking advantage of this error. In this connection we note that Appellant Administratrix has assigned as error the granting, at Defendants' request, of Instruction No. 28. The substance of that instruction pertains to putting out reflectors or other signals to warn approaching vehicles. [6] One defect in the instruction is that it submits to the jury the question whether the accident occurred within or outside a business district as though there were conflicting evidence on that point. As explained, however, Appellant has precluded herself from reversal on this ground. We find no other error in Instruction No. 28.