Bazemore v. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority

657 A.2d 1323, 1995 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 190, 1995 WL 239393
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania·Decided February 7, 1995·No. No. 631 C.D. 1994·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

FRIEDMAN, Judge.

Lori Bazemore appeals from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County granting the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and dismissing Bazemore’s complaint against SEPTA. We affirm.

On September 9, 1991, Bazemore was a passenger on a SEPTA bus. The bus was temporarily stopped at one of its regular bus stops and, as Bazemore attempted to exit through the rear door, she was injured when she slipped and fell on the bus steps, landing on the street below. Bazemore filed an action against SEPTA alleging that her fall was caused by improperly secured rubber on the steps at the back door, and that SEPTA was negligent in that it allowed this dangerous and defective condition to exist, failed to correct the defective condition, failed to warn of the defective condition, failed to maintain the area in a safe condition and failed to act in accordance with the standards imposed upon a common carrier. (R.R. at 6a-7a.) SEPTA filed a Motion for Summary Judgment asserting that it was immune under section 8521 of the Judicial Code (Code), 42 Pa.C.S. § 8521, because Bazemore’s claims did not fall within any of the exceptions to sovereign immunity found at 42 Pa.C.S. § 8522. The trial court granted SEPTA’s motion based on our decision in Miller v. Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority, 152 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 64, 618 A.2d 1095 (1992), appeal denied, 537 Pa. 643, 644 A.2d 165 (1994).

Pursuant to Code section 8521, 42 Pa.C.S. § 8521, Commonwealth parties are immune from suit except in those instances enumerated in section 8522 of the Code, 42 Pa.C.S. § 8522. On appeal to this court,1 Bazemore argues that the trial court erred in absolving SEPTA of liability for her injury, contending that her action falls within the motor vehicle exception to sovereign immunity found at Code section 8522(b)(1), 42 Pa. C.S. § 8522(b)(1) (emphasis added), which provides:

(b) Acts which may impose liability.— The following acts by a Commonwealth party may result in the imposition of liability on the Commonwealth and the defense of sovereign immunity shall not be raised to claims of damages caused by:
(1) vehicle liability. — The operation of any motor vehicle in the possession or control of a Commonwealth party. As used in this paragraph, “motor vehicle” means any vehicle which is self-propelled and any attachment thereto, including vehicles operated by rail, through water or in the air.

Recognizing our Supreme Court’s decision in Love v. City of Philadelphia, 518 Pa. 370, 543 A.2d 531 (1988), Bazemore concedes that, in interpreting the term “operation” for purposes of this exception, the Court initially [1325] seemed to require that the vehicle in question be moving at the time of the accident. In Love, a 73 year old, partially blind woman was injured as she exited a city-owned van. In determining that the city was immune from suit, the Court considered “whether the act of entering into or alighting from a motor vehicle constitutes operation of that vehicle under 42 Pa.C.S. § 8542(b)(1).” Id. at 373, 543 A.2d at 532. In the absence of a statutory definition for the word “operation,” the Court noted that it was constrained to strictly construe the term in order to reflect the expressed legislative intent of insulating governmental agencies from tort liability.2 The Court then reviewed various dictionary definitions of “operation” and concluded that “to operate something means to actually put it in motion.... Getting into or alighting from a vehicle are merely acts ancillary to the actual operation of that vehicle.” Id. at 375, 543 A.2d at 533.

Notwithstanding the Court’s decision in Love, Bazemore, relying on Sonnenberg v. Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority, 137 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 533, 586 A.2d 1026 (1991), and Vogel v. Langer, 131 Pa.Common wealth Ct. 236, 569 A.2d 1047 (1990), asserts that subsequent cases of our court have adopted a more liberal definition of “operation” to include acts “normally related to the operation of a motor vehicle” even where the vehicle itself is not in motion. Therefore, Bazemore contends that the bus was in operation within the meaning of section 8522(b)(1), reasoning that, as a common carrier, the normal role of a SEPTA bus is to pick up passengers, collect their fares, follow a designated route of travel, provide safe passage to those aboard, make temporary stops along the route and discharge passengers.3

Bazemore also attempts to distinguish Love from the present case on two bases. First, Bazemore points out that Love did not involve a common earner but a city-owned van. In this regard, Bazemore maintains that SEPTA, as a common carrier, owed its passengers a higher duty of care than did the defendant city in Love. Second, Bazemore points out that the negligence of the defendant in Love involved the placement of a parked vehicle after the driver had turned off the engine and exited the van, whereas the [1326] present case involves the temporary stopping of a bus for the regular discharge of a passenger by a common carrier which, at all times, had its engine running and the driver in his seat.4

In making these arguments, Bazemore discounts our decision in Miller v. Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority, 152 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 64, 618 A.2d 1095 (1992), appeal denied, 537 Pa. 643, 644 A.2d 165 (1994), as both absurd and unreasonable. However, like the trial court, we believe that Miller directly controls the outcome here. In Miller, a passenger slipped on the steps of a bus owned by the transit authority and fell into the street while exiting the bus. The passenger filed a complaint against the transit authority alleging that her injuries resulted from the transit authority’s negligent maintenance of the aisles and steps of the bus, which were worn, as well as wet and slippery due to an accumulation of water from an earlier rainfall. In claiming that her action fell within the motor vehicle exception to sovereign immunity, the passenger in Miller made precisely the same arguments as Baze-more does here. We considered those arguments and responded as follows:

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Bazemore v. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, 657 A.2d 1323, 1995 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 190, 1995 WL 239393 (Pa. Ct. App. 1995).

657 A.2d 1323 (Bazemore v. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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