Court Opinion

ID: 9546658
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:33:38.602799+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:44.382909
License: Public Domain

ELLETT, Justice
(concurring).
I concur in the decision with one exception : I am not prepared to state the law to be that “discretion” which will excuse the State from liability must be basic policy decisions. Nor am I willing to say now that there can be no immunity from liability where the discretion is at the operational level. It may be that the law is as stated, but the facts of this case do not require us to so hold. Under the evidence given the jury could have found there never was a berm placed in front of the area where the culvert was removed. Even if a warning berm was originally constructed, the evidence was clear that the State failed to maintain it in place.
If the question of immunity rested on the use of a berm as against a scarification of the surface of the highway, then it would seem that discretion as to which method to use would be a defense to the State under the statute, and I am unable to see where any difference should be made if an order for one over the other was made by the Commission, or by the road foreman at the operational level.
In this case there was no place for discretion to give or not to give an adequate warning to the motoring public. The duty on the part of the State to give and maintain a reasonably adequate warning was absolute, and I am unable to see where discretion is involved.
CROCKETT, J., concurs, and also concurs in the opinion of ELLETT, J.