McKinley v. City of Glenwood Springs

2015 COA 126, 361 P.3d 1080, 2015 Colo. App. LEXIS 1399, 2015 WL 5258815
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 10, 2015
DocketCourt of Appeals 14CA1039
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2015 COA 126 (McKinley v. City of Glenwood Springs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McKinley v. City of Glenwood Springs, 2015 COA 126, 361 P.3d 1080, 2015 Colo. App. LEXIS 1399, 2015 WL 5258815 (Colo. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Opinion by

JUDGE FURMAN

T1 Defendant, the City of Henwood Springs (City), appeals the district court's denial of its motion to dismiss the personal injury claims of the plaintiffs, Linda and William McKinley, under section 24-10-106(1)(d)(T), 'C.R.S. 2014, of the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (CGIA). The central issue on appeal is whether section 24-10-106(1)(d)(I) waives governmental immunity for injuries occurring in parking areas of a municipal street. Because we conclude that this section waives immunity for injuries occurring in these parking areas, we affirm the district court's order denying the City's mo- - tion to dismiss.

I. Linda McKinley's Injury

§2 Linda McKinley pulled her car into a parking spot on a municipal street in Gen-wood Springs. She stepped out of her car and tripped in a four- to five-inch deep depression in the pavement of the parking area.

T3 The McKinleys filed a complaint seeking to hold the City liable for Linda McKinley's injuries and William McKinley's loss of consortium. The City moved to dismiss the McKinleys' complaint, contending that it was immune from suit under section 24-10-106(1), which protects public entities from suits for tort-based injuries unless the seetion explicitly waives immunity. This statute explicitly waives immunity for

[a] dangerous condition of a public highway, road, or street which physically interferes with the movement of traffic on the paved portion, if paved, or on the portion customarily used for travel by motor vehicles, if unpaved, of any public highway, road, street, or sidewalk within the corporate limits of any municipality, or of any highway which is a part of the federal interstate highway system or the federal primary highway system, or of any highway which is a part of the federal secondary highway system, or of any highway which is a part of the state highway system on that portion of such highway, road, street, or sidewalk which was designed and intended for ... parking thereon.

§ 24-10-106(1)(d)(I) (emphasis added).

. T4 In response to the City's motion, the district court conducted an evidentiary hearing, in accordance with Trinity Broadcasting of Denver, Inc. v. City of Westminster, 848 P.2d 916 (Colo.1998). The court found that section 24-10-106(1)(d)(I) waives immunity for injuries occurring in parking areas in municipalities. The court also found that the depression was a dangerous condition that interfered with traffic.

II. Section 24-10-106(1)(d)(T)

15 We are guided by common rules of statutory interpretation. When interpreting a statute, our primary task is to determine and give effect to the intent of the legislature. Mason v. Adams, 961 P.2d 540, 543 (Colo.App.1997). To discern legislative intent, we look first to the statutory language, giving words and phrases their plain and ordinary meanings. Swieckowski v. City of Fort Collins, 934 P.2d 1380, 1384-85 (Colo.1997). When reviewing statutory language, we assume the legislature "understands the legal import of the words it uses and does not use language idly, but rather intends that meaning should be given to each word." Young v. Brighton Sch. Dist. 27J, 2014 CO 32, ¶ 25, 325 P.3d 571 (internal quotation marks omitted). And, we do not adopt statutory interpretations "that lead to unreasonable or absurd results." Id. at ¶ 11.

16 On appeal, the City contends that the grammatical structure of the statute "separates the types of government roads by disjunctive." Such separation, it argues, *1082 makes the final phrase-"on that portion of such highway, road, street, or sidewalk which was designed and intended for ... parking thereon"-only applicable to "highways" that are part of the "state highway system." We disagree.

T7 Our disagreement with the City is based on the following:

® The CGIA specifically provides four categories of thoroughfares: (1) municipal highways, roads, streets and sidewalks; (2) highways that are part of the federal interstate or federal primary highway system; (8) highways that are part of the federal secondary highway system; and (4) highways that are part of the state highway system.
® The municipal category is the only category that mentions a "highway, road, street, or sidewalk." § 24-10-106(1)(d)(I).
e The "parking thereon" phrase applies to a "highway, road, street, or sidewalk." Id.
@ Therefore, the "parking thereon" phrase must apply to municipal highways, roads, streets, or sidewalks.

T8 The City's argument is based on the disjunctive canon under which the use of the word "or" creates alternatives. Antonin Scalia & Bryan A. Garner, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts, 116 (2012). The City contends that the "parking thereon" phrase applies only to the last category of thoroughfares-highways that are part of the state highway system.

1 9 If we were to adopt the City's interpretation while also giving meaning to every word in section 24-10-106(1)(d)(I), see Young, ¶ 25, the City's proposed interpretation would lead to an absurd result, see id. at ¶ 11. Among other places, the statute would have to waive immunity for injuries on "any highway ... on that portion of such ... sidewalk which was designed and intended for ... parking thereon." We reject this interpretation.

110 Our supreme court's decision in Bloomer v. Board of County Commissioners, 799 P.2d 942 (Colo.1990), overruled on other grounds by Bertrand v. Board of County Commissioners, 872 P.2d 223 (Colo.1994), superseded by statute, Ch. 262, sec. 1, § 24-10-103(2.7), 2007 Colo. Sess. Laws 1025, does not compel a different result. That case only addressed whether section 24-10-106(1)(d)(1) waived immunity for injuries occurring on county roads.

111 The City also contends that it is immune from suit under section 24-10-106(1)(d)(I) because neither Linda MecKin-ley's fall nor the depression "physically interfere[d] with the movement of traffic." Again, we disagree. The phrase "interferes with the movement of traffic" modifies "(al dangerous condition" in section 24-10-106(1)(d)(T). Thus, this section waives governmental immunity only when a dangerous condition both exists and interferes with the movement of traffic. See Bloomer, 799 P.2d at 946 (holding that "'of a public highway, road, or street which physically interferes with the movement of traffic' " "merely modifies" " 'dangerous condition' ").

112 The existence of a dangerous condition and its interference with traffic are questions of fact. See Colucci v. Town of Vail, 232 P.3d 218, 222 (Colo.App.2009). We defer to the trial court's factual findings unless they are clearly erroneous and unsupported by evidence in the record.

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Bluebook (online)
2015 COA 126, 361 P.3d 1080, 2015 Colo. App. LEXIS 1399, 2015 WL 5258815, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckinley-v-city-of-glenwood-springs-coloctapp-2015.