O'Brien v. Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District

613 P.2d 432, 94 N.M. 562
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 29, 1980
Docket4343
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 613 P.2d 432 (O'Brien v. Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Brien v. Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, 613 P.2d 432, 94 N.M. 562 (N.M. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

OPINION

WOOD, Chief Judge.

Plaintiff was riding a “dirt bike”, which we understand to be a vehicular device not licensed for use on public roads. Either plaintiff, or the bike, or both, struck a cable stretched across defendant’s service road, on which plaintiff was traveling, and plaintiff was injured. The cable was attached to two railroad ties used as posts. The trial court concluded that this barrier “was negligently erected with the knowledge and consent of the Defendant, and negligently maintained by” defendant, and awarded damages to plaintiff for his injuries. Defendant appeals. We divide the issues into those involving (1) liability apart from the Tort Claims Act, and (2) liability under the Tort Claims Act.

Liability Apart From the Tort Claims Act

The evidence is undisputed that the posts and cable were not erected by defendant’s employees. Defendant contends that it cannot be liable for the negligence of persons not employed by it. Defendant was not found to be negligent on the basis of the negligence of non-employees.

Private persons, some five years prior to the accident, petitioned defendant to place a barricade across the service road “to prevent trucks and cars driving back and forth.” Petitioners were concerned with “traffic on the ditch”. The testimony is that defendant agreed that barricades (there were two of them) could be put up “but they did not have the funds or manpower to do so.” “They said that . Conservancy District locks would have to be placed so that their vehicles could have access . . . . They gave the locks to my husband. . . .We had no keys to the locks.” Petitioners erected the barricades; defendant furnished the locks and had the keys to the locks. Defendant did not instruct petitioners that any warnings or signs should be erected. Defendant used the service road for maintenance of its canal and ditch bank. Defendant had controlled use of the service road by a barricade to which it had the key for some five years before the accident happened.

The trial court found that the barrier was erected with defendant’s knowledge and consent, that the barrier was not properly marked “so that a person using the road might be able to see the cable before striking it”; that there were no signs or markers indicating the barrier existed; that there were no signs or markers indicating the public was not permitted to use the road. Substantial evidence supports these findings. From these findings, the trial court could properly conclude that defendant was negligent and that plaintiff was not contributorily negligent. See Gallagher v. Albuquerque Metro., Etc., 90 N.M. 309, 563 P.2d 103 (Ct.App.1977); Becker v. City of Waterloo, 245 Iowa 666, 63 N.W.2d 919 (1954).

Liability Under the Tort Claims Act

Defendant asserts that it is a governmental entity under the Tort Claims Act. We agree. Sections 41 — 4-2, 41 — 4— 3(B) and (C), and 73-14-13, N.M.S.A.1978. Defendant also claims that it is immune from liability except as provided in the Tort Claims Act. Again, we agree. The applicable statute is § 41-4-4(A), N.M.S.A.1978, prior to its amendment in 1978. Section 41 — 4—4(A), supra, granted immunity, except as provided in the Tort Claims Act.

Section 41 — 4-11, N.M.S.A.1978 reads:

A. The immunity granted pursuant to Subsection A of Section 41 — 4—4 NMSA 1978 does not apply to liability for damages resulting from bodily injury, wrongful death or property damage caused by the negligence of public employees while acting within the scope of their duties in the maintenance of or for the existence of any bridge, culvert, highway, roadway, street, alley, sidewalk or parking area.
B. The liability for which immunity has been waived pursuant to Subsection A of this section shall not include liability for damages caused by:
(1) a defect in plan or design of any bridge, culvert, highway, roadway, street, alley, sidewalk or parking area; or
(2) the failure to construct or reconstruct any bridge, culvert, highway, roadway, street, alley, sidewalk or parking area.

(a) On appeal, defendant contends the accident did not happen on a roadway, but upon the ditch bank of one of its canals. That is true, but defendant had a service road on top of the ditch bank. Defendant’s appellate claim, that the accident did not happen on a roadway, is contrary to its position in the trial court. Defendant requested the trial court to find that plaintiff was injured while driving on the service road and that the service road was owned by defendant. The trial court so found. Defendant may not complain that the trial court adopted findings requested by defendant. Platero v. Jones, 83 N.M. 261, 490 P.2d 1234 (Ct.App.1971).

(b) Section 41 — 4-ll(A), supra, refers to “negligence of public employees while acting within the scope of their duties”. Defendant’s negligence was in the maintenance of the service road in, as the trial court concluded, a “dangerous condition created by the . . . barrier”. Defendant asserts the maintenance of this dangerous condition was an omission, a nonfeasance, and that the Tort Claims Act does not contemplate liability for omissions.

Defendant refers us to the phrase “employees . . . acting within the scope of their duties” in § 41 — 4-11(A), supra, in support of this argument. (Our emphasis.) “[Ajcting within the scope of their duties” states the basis for holding the employer liable for negligence of the employee; it does not pertain to the type of negligence. Section 41 — 4-2(B), supra, answers defendant’s contention; that section states: “Liability for acts or omissions under the Tort Claims Act shall be based upon the traditional tort concepts of duty and the reasonably prudent person’s standard of care in the performance of that duty.” Compare U.J.I.Civ. 12.1. If maintaining the service road in a dangerous condition was an omission, it was a negligent omission and defendant may be held liable for such negligence.

(c) Defendant contends that “roadway” in § 41 — 4-ll(A), supra, means a public roadway, that is, a road open to public use, and the service road was not open to public use. See Lovelace v. Hightower, 50 N.M. 50, 168 P.2d 864 (1946) and § 67-7-10, N.M.S.A.1978. Our statutes and court decisions have distinguished between public roads (that is, open to public use) and private roads. Sections 67-2-1, 67-2-2, 67-10-4, N.M.S.A.1978; Norero v. Board of County Comm’rs of Grant County, 82 N.M. 300, 481 P.2d 88 (1971); Moore v. Armstrong, 67 N.M. 350, 355 P.2d 284 (1960). “We must presume that the legislature was informed as to existing law”. Bettini v. City of Las Cruces, 82 N.M. 633, 485 P.2d 967 (1971).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
613 P.2d 432, 94 N.M. 562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/obrien-v-middle-rio-grande-conservancy-district-nmctapp-1980.