Court Opinion

ID: 9742058
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:05:58.148951+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:28.271223
License: Public Domain

WUEST, Justice
(concurring specially).
The County has liability insurance, therefore, sovereign immunity is not applicable in this case since SDCL ch. 21-32A has eliminated sovereign immunity to the extent liability insurance coverage exists. Nor is it an “out of repair” case sanctioned by SDCL 31-32-10. Rather, this case falls within the provisions of SDCL 31-12-19 because in purchasing liability insurance, the County has waived sovereign immunity. While SDCL 31-12-19 does not set forth every specific procedure a county must use to maintain the highways, it does impose a mandatory duty to “maintain properly and adequately the county highway system.” Thus, there is no question as to whether a duty exists; the question is whether failure to remove snow from or sand a known icy patch for six weeks is properly and adequately maintaining the county highway system. This is an ordinary negligence case, subject to the issues of proximate cause, contributory negligence, if any; and possibly, assumption of the risk.
Courts in other jurisdictions have determined failure to maintain a known icy, snowy roadway in a timely manner gives rise to governmental liability. Pico v. New Jersey, 223 N.J.Super. 446, 538 A.2d 1299, 1301 (App.Div.1988) (reversing summary judgment for the state where failure to salt or sand icy patch for over three hours destroyed state’s immunity for conditions created by weather); Koehler v. Iowa, 263 N.W.2d 760, 765 (Iowa 1978) (finding no liability for failure to maintain roadway where state made reasonable, timely efforts to remove snowdrifts day after disastrous blizzard); Alaska v. Abbott, 498 P.2d 712, 716 (Alaska 1972) (holding that failure to adequately sand known dangerous curve was failure to properly maintain highway; once the decision was *83made to maintain the highway, discretion did not include choosing to do so in a negligent manner); Fincher v. New York, 19 A.D.2d 762, 241 N.Y.S.2d 504, 506 (1963) (holding that the state’s failure to sand ice created by shade from rock overhang, on otherwise clear, dry highway, resulted in liability for both failure to maintain and failure to warn).
Likewise, in the present case, the question of whether the County’s failure to sand or remove a known ice patch for six weeks breached its duty to properly and adequately maintain the road is a question of fact for the jury.
SABERS, J., joins this special writing.