Nikki Jones, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Phillip Matthew Jones v. Hancock County Board of Commissioners

55 N.E.3d 311, 2016 WL 2943376, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 163
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 20, 2016
Docket30A01-1506-CT-543
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 55 N.E.3d 311 (Nikki Jones, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Phillip Matthew Jones v. Hancock County Board of Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Nikki Jones, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Phillip Matthew Jones v. Hancock County Board of Commissioners, 55 N.E.3d 311, 2016 WL 2943376, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 163 (Ind. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

BROWN, Judge.

[1] Nikki Jones as Personal Representative .of the Estate of Phillip Matthew Jones (the “Estate”) appeals from the order of the trial court entering summary judgment in favor of the Hancock County Board of Commissioners (the “Board” or the “County”). The Estate raises one issue which we revise and restate as whether the court erred in entering summary judgment in favor of the Board. We affirm, in part, reverse in part, and remand.

Facts and Procedural History

[2] Oh July 5, 2012, ’ Phillip Matthew Jones (“Jones”) was driving in a truck northward on County Road 400 West (“CR 400W”). Jacqueline Thomas was driving in a blue car westward on County Road 200 North (“GR 200N”). At the intersection of CR 400W and CR 200N, drivers on CR 400W were not required to stop and drivers on CR 200N were required to stop at posted stop signs. The stop sign for westbound'traffic on CR 200N at the intersection of CR 400W had a “sign underneath that said cross-traffic does not stop.” Appellant’s Appendix at 178. Thomas was seventeen years old and had obtained her driver’s license two days earlier on July 3, 2012, and she knew that traffic on CR 400W did not have a stop sign.

[3] Thomas stopped on CR 200N at the stop sign at the intersection of CR 200N and CR 400W. Jones’s truck was traveling toward the intersection at fifty to' sixty miles per hour and over the speed limit of fórty-five miles per hour. ' A black vehicle traveling eastward on CR 200N stopped at the two-way stop at the intersection of CR 400W and CR 200N and then crossed the intersection quickly in front of Jones’s truck. At or close to the same time, Thomas “inched up a little bit past the stop sign to look both ways,” looked to the right, and then looked to the left and saw a truck which “felt like it was right in [her] window” immediately before the truck impacted her car. 1 Id. at 180.. Jones’s truck struck Thomas’s car and flipped or rolled *313 several times before coming to a stop, and Jones died as- a result of the crash.

[4] The Estate, in an amended complaint, brought a wrongful death claim against the Hancock County Highway Department (the “Highway Department”) and the Board. The Estate alleged in part that the Board and Highway Department owed a duty to Jones to protect the users of Hancock County roadways from dangerous conditions on the roadways and to exercise reasonable care in installing proper traffic control devices, that they breached their, duty “by failing to properly and diligently monitor traffic accidents in Hancock County starting in 2008, including traffic accidents occurring at the Intersection,” that they breached their duty “by failing to properly and diligently control traffic at the Intersection through the installation of an alternative traffic control device to the two-way stop which was obviously not properly controlling the Intersection,” and that their “failure to monitor and properly control the Intersection were a concurring and proximate cause of serious personal injury and death to [Jones], as well as emotional damages and lost income and earnings to Nikki Jones and her two minor children.” Id. at 66. The Estate further alleged that, according to Ind.Code § 9-21-4-1, “[a] governmental agency in Indiana that is responsible for the signing, marking, and erection of traffic- control devices on streets and highways within Indiana shall follow the Indiana Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways” (the “Manual”), that the Manual “further provides that such' agencies • shall use the [Manual] in determining the necessity of proper traffic control devices,” and that the Manual “provides for the installation of a multi-way stop for several different reasons, and one factor to be considered upon completion of an -engineering study, is whether there have - been ‘five or more reported crashes in a 12 month period that are susceptible to correction by a multi-way stop installation.’ ” Id. at 64-65.

[5] In their answer, the Board and the Highway Department “admit the Manual ... provides guidance and instructions concerning installation of regulatory and warning-. signs where decisions are made by governmental entities to install such signs.” Id. at 78: The Board and the Highway Department raised a number of affirmative defenses which included the defense of contributory negligence, that the claims are barred by any and all applicable immunities contained in the Indiana Tort Claims Act (the “ITCA”), including Ind.Code § 34-13-3-3(7) and (8), and that the Highway Department is not a proper party defendant and should be dismissed.

[6] The Board and the Highway Department subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment together with a memorandum of law in support of the motion and designated evidence, which included among other materials portions of the depositions of Thomas and witnesses to the crash and affidavits related to the roadways and the existing county ordinances. In their motion, the Board and the Highway Department argued in párt that they were immune from liability under Ind. Code § 34-13-3-3(8) for failing to convert the intersection from a two-way to a four-way stop, immune from liability for failing to adopt a law requiring landowners' to trim back corn,. immune for failing to inspect private property, and immune from liability for the design of CR 400W and CR 200N and the intersection. They also argued they did not have , a duty to remove weeds or maintain private property and that the Highway Department was not a *314 proper party defendant. 2 In their memorandum, the Board and the Highway Department argued that Hancock County cannot be liable for failing to convert the two-way stop at the intersection into a four-way stop because, pursuant to Ind. Code § 34-13-3-3(8), “governmental entities are immune-from liability in tort for failing to install regulatory signs such as stop signs...” Id. at 119. The designated evidence of the affidavit of the Auditor of Hancock County states that, on December 14, 1992, the Board adopted Hancock County Ordinance 1992-12F which provided that CR 400W was a preferential through road where it intersected CR 200N and that vehicles traveling on CR 200N were required to come to a complete stop at the intersection of CR 200N and CR 400W before entering the intersection and yield the right-of-way to other motor vehicles. 3 The affidavit also states that, on August 7, 2012, the Board adopted Ordinance No.2012-8A establishing a four-way stop at the intersection of CR 200N and CR 400W,

[7] The Estate filed a response in opposition to the summary judgment motion together with a brief and designated evidence, which included among other materials a “200N & 400W Intersection Study” and portions of the Manual. 4 -

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55 N.E.3d 311, 2016 WL 2943376, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 163, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nikki-jones-as-personal-representative-of-the-estate-of-phillip-matthew-indctapp-2016.