Court Opinion

ID: 9775876
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:11:40.815973+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:31.792055
License: Public Domain

DRAUGHN, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The jury found in answer to Question 1 that a dangerous condition existed on the occasion in question because of the manner of installation of the stop sign. The state installed the stop sign. Probative evidence supported the jury’s answer to this question. That evidence showed there was not sufficient concrete on the base of the stop sign to support it according to industry standards. The state vigorously disputed this evidence, but the jury answered it adversely to the state, and that closes the matter. The state created a dangerous condition not visible to the driving public. This dangerous condition proximately caused serious injury and death to members of that driving public. In my opinion, the state cannot escape liability because it did not get actual notice shortly before the dangerous condition caused these tragic results. The state was charged with the responsibility of installing safe, well-anchored stop signs. The jury found the state failed to do so, and the state should respond in damages for the Creeks’ injuries and for the death of their child.
To hold otherwise, in my opinion, sets up a ticking-time-bomb theory of liability avoidance for the state. It allows the state to set in place a potentially dangerous hidden condition and to escape liability therefor, if the state receives no actual notice right before it “explodes” and causes injury or death. The state’s employees installed the defective stop sign and created the dangerous condition. The state is charged with knowledge of what they do. The mere passage of time should not relieve the state of responsibility for the foreseeable consequences of that knowledge.
*803I would reverse and render judgment for appellants for the appropriate maximum damages allowable under the Texas Tort Claims Act as applied to the damages found by the jury.