Court Opinion

ID: 9515030
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:53:14.940823+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:24.174765
License: Public Domain

SABERS, Justice
(dissenting).
[¶ 28.] I dissent. The majority opinion holds that the conduct of Township in improperly reinstalling the warning sign was an intervening superseding cause precluding a finding of negligence and relieving Rozell and T-Lakota from any liability. In reaching this result, the majority opinion incorrectly relies on Restatement (Second) of Torts § 452(2).
*744[¶ 29.] Section 452(2) is an exception to the general rule of § 452(1) that “the failure of a third person to act to prevent harm to another threatened by the actor’s negligent conduct is not a superseding cause of such harm.” (emphasis added). The exception provides: “Where, because of a lapse of time or otherwise, the duty to prevent harm to another threatened by the actor’s negligent conduct is found to have shifted from the actor to a third person, the failure to the third person to prevent such harm is a superseding cause.” The lapse of time may shift the duty and liability for any injury to the third person and may relieve the original actor of any liability. § 452(2) cmt. d. However, the general rule of § 452(1) should apply under these circumstances, not the exception.
[¶ 30.] The lapse of time between Ro-zell and T-Lakota’s conduct and Township’s conduct is not so significant as to relieve Rozell and T-Lakota of all liability as a matter of law. The majority opinion’s statement that: “If Rozell or T-Lakota were liable in such a case, nothing would prevent them from being liable if the accident were to occur ten years later[ ]” goes too far. The three-week lapse in time between the reinstallation of the sign and Braun’s accident is not so long as to necessarily render any future injuries unforeseeable. Additionally, the independent statutory duty of Township to maintain appropriate signs cannot completely relieve Rozell and T-Lakota of all liability for their negligent conduct. The intervening act of Township, reinstalling the sign, does not “so entirely supersede the operation of [Rozell and T-Lakota’s] negligence that it alone, without [their] negligence contributing thereto, produces the injury.” Schmeling v. Jorgenson, 77 S.D. 8, 18, 84 N.W.2d 558, 568 (1957) (citation omitted). The conduct of Rozell, T-Lakota and Township operated concurrently to produce the harm suffered by Braun.
[¶ 31.] Furthermore, this Court has stated: “[N]egligence, to render a person hable, need not by the sole cause of injury, but it is sufficient that his negligence concurring with one or more efficient negligent acts of third persons, is a proximate cause of the injury.” Schmeling, 77 S.D. 8 at 19, 84 N.W.2d at 564 (additional citations omitted). As a matter of law, Rozell and T-Lakota are not entitled to summary judgment. It is a question for the jury to determine whether the lapse of time is sufficient to relieve others of liability and I would reverse so that a jury could determine the liability of Rozell and T-Lakota.