Court Opinion

ID: 9622262
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:14:48.628048+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:54:38.522914
License: Public Domain

Judge ROTHENBERG
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion’s treatment of the “dangerous condition” exception to governmental immunity as it relates to the county commissioners.
In Mentzel v. Judicial Department, 778 P.2d 323, 325 (Colo.App.1989), this court noted that the dangerous condition exception in the sovereign immunity statute, § 24-10-106(1)(c), C.R.S. (1988 Repl.Vol. 10A), was designed to “encourage public institutions to construct, maintain, and use their buildings and facilities in a manner that will assure the safety of persons who visit them.”
The Mentzel opinion states:
“The language a physical condition of a facility or the use thereof must be interpreted to relate to the underlying purpose of assuring safe physical conditions in public buildings.... Thus, the word use thereof relates to the physical condition of public facilities. No waiver of immunity was intended for injuries caused by the use of facilities unless such use renders the facility itself an unreasonable risk to public safety_” (emphasis added)
A courthouse is unlike any other public facility where attendance is optional. Rather, a citizen summoned for jury duty, or subpoenaed as a party or witness to a lawsuit, has a mandatory duty to appear. Further, the basic use intended for a courthouse is to serve as a forum for the peaceful ' resolution of heated disputes. It is entirely foreseeable that certain litigants, witnesses, and their families will be emotional, angry, irrational, and occasionally violent. This is especially true in domestic disputes and in criminal cases.
Thus, since the “use” of a courthouse is to serve as a magnet for potentially volatile situations attracting potentially violent individuals, it is entirely appropriate, in my opinion, to require county authorities to take reasonable measures to ensure the public’s physical safety while at the courthouse. And, the issue of whether the Arapahoe County courthouse was in a dangerous condition should be determined by a jury of Arapahoe County citizens as a factual matter after considering all the circumstances, including the use for which the facility was intended. See Landry v. City of Detroit, 143 Mich.App. 16, 371 N.W.2d 466, 472 (Mich.App.1985) rev’d on other grounds sub nom. Hadfield v. Oakland County Drain Commissioner, 430 Mich. 139, 422 N.W.2d 205 (1988) (J. Kelly concurring in part and dissenting in part) (witness stabbed in courtroom).
Here, plaintiff Jenks claims that omissions by the county commissioners, such as the failure to provide metal detection devices at entries to the courthouse, or to take other reasonable measures in the courthouse, created an unreasonable risk to public safety and to him. Jenks further claims that the risk to public safety was known to exist or should have been known to exist.
In support of his contention, Jenks notes that in January 1986, another tragic shooting occurred in a courtroom at the old Aurora branch of the Arapahoe County courthouse following a domestic relations case. Also, the record here contains an affidavit by Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan which states:
“In January of 1986, I met with District Judge Robert F. Kelly of the Eighteenth *804Judicial District at his request in the wake of a shooting that occurred in the old Aurora courthouse to discuss security measures that might be taken to improve security. As a result of that meeting, I made a written request to the Board of County Commissioners for Arapahoe County for a supplemental appropriation needed to add additional deputies to my force so as to be able to assign personnel to the courthouse for security as asked for by Judge Kelly. My funding request was denied based upon the County Attorney’s opinion that neither the sheriff nor the County was obligated to fund or provide security for the courthouse, except as may be requested by a particular judge in a particular case.” (emphasis added)
In my opinion, these facts would allow a reasonable jury to consider whether the county’s failure to take reasonable security measures based on known risks resulted in a dangerous condition in the use of the courthouse and whether that dangerous condition was the cause of harm to plaintiff Jenks. I would therefore affirm the summary judgment as to defendant Sullivan, but would reverse it as to the Arapahoe County Commissioners and remand for further proceedings on that claim.