Court Opinion

ID: 9654933
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:54:49.482203+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:14.757585
License: Public Domain

MURPHY, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. In Villarreal v. City of San Antonio, 657 S.W.2d 175 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1983, no writ), the court said:
We hold that failure to erect a barricade at the end of a dead end street is a governmental function to which the provisions of the Texas Tort Claims Act, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 6252-19, § 1 et seq., (Vernon 1970) apply.
The court went on to reason:
Regulation of traffic is a governmental function. Lorig v. City of Mission, 629 S.W.2d 699, 700 (Tex.1982); City of Austin v. Daniels, 160 Tex. 628, 335 S.W.2d 753, 754 (1960). A “barricade” is officially defined as a traffic control device to warn or alert drivers of the termination of a road and it may be used to mark the end of a roadway other than construction or maintenance areas. STATE DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS AND TRANSPORTATION: Texas Manual On Uniform Traffic Control Devices For States and Highways, 2A1.1 and 3F1. Therefore, a barricade, that may be used to mark the end of a roadway other than construction or maintenance areas, is intended to regulate traffic for the safety of the public generally. In the instant case, unlike those cases involving road signs which warned of construction or improvements to a street and were characterized as proprietary function cases, the barricade in question would have marked the end of the street and warned the public in general of the end of the roadway and the existing concrete culvert.
The majority, without citing any authority, concludes that “a barricade ... is a warning sign meant to instruct a driver about a dangerous hazard or condition in or near the street. In this case the hazard was a drainage ditch.” They further say “we consider the barricade a warning sign necessitated by the city’s mandatory duty to perform a proprietary function of maintaining safe streets.” Why can not a barricade be used as a traffic control device to warn or alert drivers of the termination of a road or mark the end of a roadway other than in construction or maintenance areas as was decided in Villarreal?
Although this case doesn’t concern a truly dead end street, (that is one with no outlet) apparently the City of Pasadena considered it such because the city had erected a dead end sign on the south side of Wyatt street, approximately 700 feet west of the “L” intersection.
In City of Houston v. Jean, 517 S.W.2d 596 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1974, writ ref’d n.r.e.), Jean was injured when she drove her automobile off a dead end street into an adjacent ditch. There was no barricade at the end of the “T” intersection indicating the end of the street or the presence of the ditch. The court held “the City was under a duty to warn or protect against any special defect such as an excavation or obstruction in the street or in such proximity to the street as to *597render travel unsafe. Gabbert v. City of Brownwood, 176 S.W.2d 344 (Tex.Civ.App.—Eastland 1943, writ ref'd). See also Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 6252-19, § 14(12) (Vernon 1970) (Texas Tort Claims Act) (now codified at Tex.Civ.Prac. & Rem.Code § 101.060 (Vernon 1986)).
In my opinion, cases such as this should not be decided on the basis of how a “barricade” or other device is characterized. The San Antonio Court of Appeals in Villarreal supra, at least relied upon the Texas Manual On Uniform Traffic Control Devices For States and Highways to reach the conclusion that a barricade is a traffic control device. The majority, on the other hand, reasons from pre-Tort Claim Act cases that the erection of a barricade had to do with a city’s duty to maintain safe streets, even if there is evidence, as here, that there was no construction and no improvements were taking place.
Article 6252-19 § 14(12), Vernon’s Tex. Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann., now Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Chapter 101 provided:
“(12) Any claim arising from the absence, condition, or malfunction of any traffic or road sign, signal, or warning device unless such absence, condition, or malfunction shall not be corrected by the governmental unit responsible within a reasonable time after notice, or any claim arising from the removal or destruction of such signs, signals or devices by third parties except on failure of the unit of government to correct the same within such reasonable time, after actual notice. Nothing herein shall give rise to liability arising from the failure to any unit of government to initially place any of the above signs, signals, or devices when such failure is the result of discretionary actions of said governmental unit. The signs, signals and warning devices enumerated above are those used in connection with hazards normally connected with the use of the roadway, and this section shall not apply to the duty to warn of special defects such as excavations or roadway obstruction.” (emphasis ours)
I would hold that the City of Pasadena, if liable, is liable only under the provisions of article 6252-19 § 14(12). This case involves an initial placement of a barricade. Whether the City of Pasadena had discretion to initially erect a barricade is an issue of fact.