Court Opinion

ID: 9735068
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:59:47.757454+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:54.987280
License: Public Domain

Davidson, J,

dissenting:

I concur in the result reached by the majority with respect to the appellee, Olga Mary Mazza. I dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which affirms the trial court’s order of a directed verdict in favor of Montgomery County.
In Washington County v. Gaylor, 140 Md. 375, 117 A. 864 (1922), the Court of Appeals recognized that a county is charged with the duty of keeping the county’s public roads safe for the travel of the public. It held that it was for the jury to determine whether an accident which occurred when a tree fell upon an automobile traveling along a public road was caused by the defective condition of the tree and, if so, whether the county knew, or by the exercise of reasonable care could have known, of such a dangerous condition in time to have prevented the accident.
In Gaylor the record showed that the accident occurred on a public road somewhere in Washington County on 7 August 1920, a day when there was no storm and only a moderate wind. There was also evidence to show that the tree in question was an old tree which stood 15 to 26 feet from the center of the highway; that one of its limbs was 60 to 70 feet high and extended across the highway; that at various places on the tree there was evidence of decay; that there were large cracks in the trunk; and that that condition of the tree had existed for “some time” before the accident.
Here, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the appellant, the record shows that the accident occurred on 2 August 1971 on Brickyard Road, a public road located in what, until 1967, had been a rural neighborhood in Montgomery County. At the time of the accident the county knew that 125 single-family homes had been constructed in *372the area, whose occupants necessarily used Brickyard Road for vehicular ingress and egress. In addition, approximately 75 employees, working on the construction of new houses in the vicinity, also, of necessity, traveled that road to and from work.1 The accident occurred on a clear, sunny day when no wind was blowing.
There was further evidence to show that the tree which fell and caused the accident stood on privately owned property about 10 to 13 feet from the edge of Brickyard Road; that the tree was approximately 100 feet tall but that none of its limbs extended across the highway; that notwithstanding the fact that it was then August there were no leaves on the tree; that most of the bark on the tree was gone; that the tree had been dead for a “long time” and had been observed to have been dead at least a year before the accident; that at the time of the accident there was a “break” in the top of the tree; and that at that time there was another piece of the dead tree suspended in the limbs of a green tree nearby. A large number of photographs depicting the condition of the tree at the time of the accident were entered into evidence.
In my view this evidence, while not as strong as that offered in Gay hr,2 was nonetheless sufficient to support a *373rational inference that the county, by the exercise of reasonable care, could have known, in time to have prevented the accident, that the tree which fell was in a dangerous condition. Thus, there was enough evidence to take to the jury the question of whether the county was negligent in failing to keep Brickyard Road safe for the traveling public.
I agree with the majority that the Court of Appeals did not, in Gaylor, intend to “direct that every such case leave to a jury the question of the government’s duty to inspect and ascertain defects occasioned by natural causes without regard to the use of the road or population pressures of the countryside.” The standard of care required of the county in keeping county roads in a safe condition was thoroughly explained in Staubitz, supra, at 231 Md. 315, 190 A. 2d 82. There the Court of Appeals said:
“The standard of care required of county commissioners is to use reasonable care and diligence to keep the county roads in a safe condition. They are not insurers against accidents on the roads. Although the standard of reasonable care remains constant, what is reasonable care in a given situation varies with the conditions present on such road or highway. Reasonable care on a busy, often-traveled highway requires greater diligence on the part of the county commissioners than that required on a relatively little traveled road.” (Citations omitted.)
I am suggesting that here there was evidence to show that, at the time of the accident here involved, in excess of 200 persons per day used the allegedly “rural” Brickyard Road, and that the county was aware of the fact that the use of *374that road had increased substantially between 1967 and the date of the accident. Reasonable men could conclude from that evidence that the county had an obligation to inspect and was negligent in failing so to do. In short, the question of whether, under these circumstances, the county failed to use reasonable care and diligence to keep the county roads in a safe condition, was one for the jury. Accordingly, I would reverse the order which directed a verdict in favor of Montgomery County and would remand the case for a new trial.

. Knowledge of this ongoing development can be imputed to the county because it issues building permits prior to construction. Montgomery County Code (1972) §§ 8-206, 8-214, 8-215.

. Here the record shows that the tree was on private property, while in Gaylor, supra, the location of the tree is unclear. Courts in other states have recognized that the public authority responsible for maintaining roads has the obligation and authority to abate conditions threatening danger to motorists, even where the peril, and in particular, an offending tree, is located on private property. See e.g., Barron v. City of Natchez, 90 So. 2d 673, 676-77 (Miss. 1956); Fitzgerald v. State, 96 N.Y.S.2d 452, 455 (Ct. Cl. 1950); Brown v. State, 58 N.Y.S.2d 691, 692-93 (Ct. Cl. 1945), aff'd 66 N.Y.S.2d 922 (App. Div. 1946); Messinger v. State, 51 N.Y.S.2d 506, 507 (Ct. Cl. 1944); Inabinett v. State Highway Dept., 12 S.E.2d 848, 851 (S.C. 1941).
Here the record shows that the branches of the tree did not extend across the highway. The fact that neither a tree nor any of its limbs are within or over the roadway is not necessarily a prerequisite to a finding of the governing body’s responsibility. Baltimore v. Eagers, 167 Md. 128, 136, 173 A. 56, 59-60 (1934). See Brown, supra; Messinger, supra. It has been recognized in Maryland that the county’s obligation to keep its roads safe for public travel includes the duty of protecting travelers not only against dangerous conditions located in the roadway itself but also against dangerous conditions located in close proximity to the boundaries of the *373roadway. County Commissioners of Carroll County v. Staubitz, 231 Md. 309, 314, 190 A. 2d 79, 82 (1963); see Birckhead v. City of Baltimore, 174 Md. 32, 36-37, 197 A. 615, 618 (1938).
Here the evidence shows that the tree was dead, whereas in Gaylor, supra, there was evidence that the tree had decayed. Direct evidence of decay need not be presented. See Brandywine Hundred Realty Co. v. Cotillo, 55 F.2d 231 (3d Cir. 1932).