Court Opinion

ID: 9672207
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:50:46.964885+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:14.911646
License: Public Domain

STORCKMAN, Judge
(dissenting).
I dissent and concur in the separate dissenting opinions of Stone, Special Judge, and Seiler, J.
Further, I believe the defendant Harrison is subject to liability for a wilful and wanton tort or for the creation of a public nuisance. The defendant as a private person was engaged in the construction of a public road which is a proper purpose, but he is not entitled to do so at the expense and to the damage of others. Generally, private persons are considered liable for dangerous conditions created by them in a public highway. 39 Am.Jur.2d, Highways, Streets and Bridges, § 359; 40 C.J.S. Highways § 252, p. 286. In the aggravated circumstances of this case, I can make no distinction between imposing a dangerous substance or obstruction on the surface of a highway and a deliberate and wanton creation of a hole in the highway. The defendant’s employees saw that the highway was being destroyed in several places by the use they were making of it, but the defendant knowingly continued his use of it. The defendant found it necessary to repair the highway in order to make it suitable for his continued use of it.
The defendant in effect appropriated the highway and by his excessive use of it destroyed the highway in certain places and knowingly created dangerous defects. It cannot be denied that the use made by the defendant was inordinate and excessive and the defects created were not an incident of normal and customary usage. *406This is a legal wrong for which there should be a remedy.
I have found no case on similar facts but such a situation should be covered as well by the rule which provides liability in cases where a highway user negligently deposits foreign substances and obstructions on highways.
For these reasons I respectfully dissent.