Opinion ID: 849118
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: horace v city of pontiac

Text: The Court of Appeals determined that neither the terrace nor the ramp is part of the buildings in question, relying on this Court's decision in Horace. Horace was a consolidated appeal involving two different sets of facts, both of which involved injuries from defects in walkways.8 The first concerned a hole or crack eighteen to twenty-eight feet from the entrance doors of the Silverdome in Pontiac. The second involved a hole in a walkway leading to the entrance of a building at a rest area on I-75. The issue in Horace was whether the public building exception applies to dangerous or defective conditions of areas outside and adjacent to entrances or exits of public buildings. Horace, supra at 746. The Court concluded that the ground adjacent to a public building is [not] a public 'building,' statutorily speaking . . . . Id. at 757. Thus, 8 The decision in Horace also resolved its companion case, Adams v Dep't of State Highways & Transportation. 8 the core holding of Horace is that mere sidewalks and walkways are clearly outside the scope of the public building exception. However, the Court added in a footnote that the decision is not an absolute bar to injuries occurring from defective or dangerous conditions located outside the four walls of a building. The footnote states: The dissent suggests that our opinion may cut off liability for injuries resulting from the collapse of an outside overhang on a public building, stairs leading up to or down from an elevated building entrance, an underground tunnel leading into a building, an attached external ramp or railing. While it is not necessary for us to resolve these hypothetical situations in the case at bar, we note that an outside overhang is a danger presented by a physical condition of a building itself and that some stairs may also fit the test we adopt today if they are truly part of the building itself. [Id. at 756-757, n 9.] We are now asked to further clarify the extent to which something outside a building falls within the exception.