Opinion ID: 1952081
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Predecessor Statutes

Text: Finally, I wish to briefly examine this Court's treatment of the highway exception's predecessor statutes to dispel any misapprehension about the significance I believe these cases have for the statute at issue. See Chaney, supra at 178-216, 523 N.W.2d 762 (Levin, J., dissenting). The present highway exception was enacted under 1964 P.A. 170. Before 1964, this Court interpreted the predecessor statutes, 1879 P.A. 244, [11] 1885 P.A. 214, [12] and 1887 P.A. 264, [13] to provide that a municipality (township, village, city or corporation) was obliged to ensure that the road was in a reasonably safe condition. [14] In McEvoy v. Sault Ste. Marie, 136 Mich. 172, 176, 98 N.W. 1006 (1904), this Court recognized that there was a conflict in the cases because the 1879 act was open to two incompatible constructions: [O]ne, that it imposed upon municipalities an obligation to use diligence to keep their highways and streets in a condition reasonably safe and fit for public travel; and the other, that it imposed upon municipalities only the obligation to use due diligence to keep their highways and streets in good repair. This Court decided to embrace the first interpretation, as it had held in Joslyn v. Detroit, 74 Mich. 458, 42 N.W. 50 (1889), and decided to disregard the analysis, although not necessarily the results, of the conflicting cases, as represented by McArthur v. Saginaw, 58 Mich. 357, 25 N.W. 313 (1885), among others. [15] I do not quarrel with this holding or with the conclusion that the previous statutes required that a municipality ensure that a road was in a reasonably safe condition. However, the Legislature repealed this statute and, in enacting a new one, substantially changed the duty that it created.