Opinion

Hickey v. Zezulka

  • 177 Mich. App. 606
  • 443 N.W.2d 180
Court
Michigan Court of Appeals
Filed
Jun 19, 1989
Status
Published
Author
Sullivan
On the bench
Kelly, Sullivan, Shamo
Cited by
6 cases
Authority
More cited than 9.4%

Reversed on other grounds by Hickey v. Zezulka, 439 Mich. 408 (1992)

The opinion

Sullivan, J.

(dissenting). I dissent only from part i of the majority opinion which addresses the public building exception to governmental immunity, MCL 691.1406; MSA 3.996(106). I do not believe that the Legislature intended that the public building exception to governmental immunity be applied to facts such as those contained in this case. The Court in Reardon v Dep’t of Mental Health, 430 Mich 398, 415 ; 424 NW2d 248 (1988), clarified that the duty imposed by the public building exception, a narrow exception, "relates to dangers actually presented by the building itself.”

*625 Some would limit a reading of Reardon to those cases in which an intervening third party acts to cause the injury. I read Reardon as saying much more. The Reardon Court traced the history of the public building exception, and concluded that the Legislature intended that exception to apply to cases presenting a fact situation similar to Williams v Detroit, 364 Mich 231 ; 111 NW2d 1 (1961), the case which precipitated the governmental immunity act. Reardon, supra, pp 408-409 . Therefore, it would apply to an injury arising out of a dangerous or defective physical condition of the building itself. In Williams , the decedent was killed when he fell down an elevator shaft. The elevator was defective in that it had an opening which was not guarded or protected in any way and a space, about thirty inches wide, between the elevator floor and the side of the shaft. The condition of the building itself posed a danger to the decedent. However, in this case, as in the companion case to Reardon, Schafer v Ethridge, there is no evidence that the physical condition of the room itself posed a danger to the decedent.

As our Supreme Court said in Reardon, supra, p 417 , "the Legislature intended to impose a duty to maintain safe public buildings, but not necessarily safety in public buildings.”

I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Claims against msu.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.