Opinion ID: 1754118
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: A Submissible Case of Waiver of Sovereign Immunity was Made.

Text: To benefit from the statutory waiver of sovereign immunity set out in section 537.600.1(2), Mr. Hensley was required to prove four elements: (1) that the property was in dangerous condition at the time of the injury, (2) that the injury directly resulted from the dangerous conditionthat is, that the dangerous condition was the proximate cause of the injury, see Stanley v. City of Independence, 995 S.W.2d 485, 488 (Mo. banc 1999); (3) that the dangerous condition created a reasonably foreseeable risk of harm of the kind of injury that was incurred; and (4) that a public entity had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition in sufficient time prior to the injury to have taken measures to protect against the dangerous condition. Jackson County asserts that Mr. Hensley failed to make a submissible case on any of these four required elements. It notes that it presented evidence that the direct cause of Mr. Hensley's injuries was the negligence of the person driving the car in which he was riding and Mr. Hensley's own negligence in failing to wear a seat belt. Jackson County presented evidence that Missouri law requires motorists at unregulated intersections to yield to the traffic coming from the right, sec. 304.351.2, RSMo 2000, and that the driver of Mr. Hensley's car may have been speeding. Therefore, the County argues, the car in which Mr. Hensley was riding should have yielded the right of way to the car that hit it. Missouri law is clear, however, that a failure of the driver to yield would be insufficient in and of itself to negate the [causation] element of the dangerous condition exception . . . [to] the sovereign immunity defense. Williams v. Mo. Hwy & Transp. Comm'n, 16 S.W.3d 605, 612 (Mo. App. W.D.2000). The negligence of the defendant need not be the sole cause of the injury, as long as it is one of the efficient causes thereof, without which injury would not have resulted. Oldaker v. Peters, 869 S.W.2d 94, 100 (Mo.App. W.D.1993). Mr. Hensley presented substantial evidence that it was Jackson County's negligent maintenance of the stop sign that caused his injuries. This included the testimony of two nearby residents that the sign was down at the time of the accident and the testimony of two experienced employees of the Jackson County Department of Public Works itself, each of whom had worked for Jackson County for over 20 years, that a downed stop sign is a dangerous condition that can cause traffic accidents. These two Public Works department witnesses, as well as another Public Works employee who had been with the department for thirty-nine years, also testified that it is an issue of highest importance when a stop sign is down because an accident could happen and people could get injured and that downed stop signs were replaced within a few hours of receiving notice of them. In addition, the driver of the vehicle in which Mr. Hensley was a passenger testified that his practice was to slow down and stop when he saw a stop sign, that he did not see the stop sign, and that he did not slow down. Mr. Hensley also presented testimony that would permit the jury to infer that Jackson County had constructive notice that the sign was down in sufficient time to repair or replace it prior to the accident. One witness testified that the stop sign had been leaning at a 45-degree angle for the entirety of August 2002, and two witnesses testified that the stop sign was completely down from the morning of Friday, August 30, 2002, through the time of the accident on the evening of Sunday, September 1, 2002. Other testimony established that vehicles from Public Works and the sheriff's department traversed the intersection regularly during the time the stop sign was leaning and down. This evidence was sufficient to permit the jury to conclude that the stop sign was down at the time of the accident, that Jackson County had constructive notice that it had fallen down in time to repair or replace it before the accident, that it was reasonably foreseeable that the lack of a stop sign would create a dangerous condition, and that the fallen stop sign caused a dangerous condition and led to the accident. Jackson County notes that it presented contrary evidence that the stop sign did not fall until shortly before the accident and, had it been down earlier, it would have been replaced immediately. But, because the jury found in favor of plaintiff, this Court disregards evidence and inferences that conflict with th[e] verdict in determining whether plaintiff made a submissible case. Dhyne v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 188 S.W.3d 454, 456-57 (Mo. banc 2006). Mr. Hensley made a submissible case on each element needed to prove a dangerous condition of public property.