Court Opinion

ID: 9742059
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:05:58.152999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:28.272108
License: Public Domain

AMUNDSON, Justice
(dissenting).
SDCL 31-12-19 requires Davison County to “properly and adequately” maintain its highway system. What maintenance is required is not specifically defined in the statute. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines “maintain” as “to keep in a state of repair.” I would hold that SDCL 31-12-19 places no more duty on Davison County than is required by SDCL 31-32-10. To hold that a county is liable for unremoved snow or ice anywhere on its highway system certainly extends the potential for liability beyond the generic duty imposed in SDCL 31-12-19.
As stated in Homan v. Chicago & Northwestern Transp. Co., 314 N.W.2d 861, 862 (S.D.1982):
The presence of snow on a township road late in December is not an altogether unexpected event. Although, the presence of snow on a highway may indeed present a hazard to motorist, to hold that unremoved [ice] causes a [county] highway to become out of repair would constitute a remarkable extension of the duty imposed by SDCL 31 — 32—10[.]
To require a county to remove all snow and ice from its highways under SDCL 31-12-19 extends the maintenance requirements of this statute much farther than can be discerned from a simple reading of the statute. This is especially true considering South Dakota’s often harsh climate. Therefore, I decline to extend such an interpretation to this maintenance/repair statute and would affirm the trial court.