Court Opinion

ID: 9690048
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:52:17.416897+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:53.380108
License: Public Domain

M. H. Cherry, J.
(dissenting). For the reasons stated below, I respectfully dissent.
Governmental agencies generally are immune from tort liability whenever they are engaged in "the exercise or discharge of a governmental function.” MCL 691.1407; MSA 3.996(107); Scheurman v Dep’t of Transportation, 434 Mich 619, 627; 456 NW2d 66 (1990). As our Supreme Court found in that case, to this general rule of immunity there are four narrow exceptions, one of which is the highway exception. The pertinent language of the highway exception is:
Each governmental agency having jurisdiction over any highway shall maintain the highway in reasonable repair so that it is reasonably safe and convenient for public travel. . . . The liability, procedure and remedy as to county roads under the jurisdiction of a county road commission shall be as provided in section 21 of chapter IV of Act No. 283 of the Public Acts of 1909, as amended, being section 224.21 of the Michigan Compiled Laws. [MCL 691.1402(1); MSA 3.996(102)(1).]
The duties of county road commissions regarding county roads are enumerated in MCL 224.21; MSA 9.121:
... It is hereby made the duty of the counties to keep in reasonable repair, so that they shall be reasonably safe and convenient for public travel, all county roads, bridges and culverts that are within their jurisdiction and under their care and control and which are open to public travel. . . .
*458To suspend this statutory duty when a road is under construction, a governmental unit must close that road. Speck v Bruce Twp, 166 Mich 550, 557-558; 132 NW 114 (1911); Beattie v Detroit, 137 Mich 319, 323; 100 NW 574 (1904); Southwell v Detroit, 74 Mich 438, 443-445; 42 NW 118 (1889). Unfortunately, neither the statutes nor those cases clearly define what is meant by "open to public travel” or "closed.”
The majority noted that "the road was marked by eight-foot barricades as being closed to through traffic while repairs and improvements were being made,” ante at 456, and concluded that was sufficient to suspend the highway exception to governmental immunity. I look at those facts and determine that they constituted only a temporary, partial closing of the road, insufficient to suspend the statutory exception, especially because defendant has conceded that the road was open to local traffic. To avoid liability under the highway exception, I would find that the road must be closed totally. As a consequence, I would find that plaintiffs have stated claims upon which relief could be granted and that the trial court erred in granting defendant’s motion for summary disposition.