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CMLawLibraryBlog

The CM Law Library Blog seeks to inform the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law community about key legal education, research, practice, and law library news, with a particular focus on Cuyahoga County and Ohio as well as faculty research interests.

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Nuisance or Obstruction? Letting the Government off the Hook

Jan Novak, Associate Director jan.novak@law.csuohio.edu | June 20, 2008 - 09:31

The Ohio Supreme Court decided this week that R.C. 2744.02(B)(3), which allows civil lawsuits against a political subdivision for injuries sustained as a result of the subdivision’s negligent failure to remove an obstruction from a roadway, does not apply to an accumulation of ice. In this case, the ice hazard was arguably created or exacerbated by actions of township fire fighters who were conducting a training exercise. See Howard v. Miami Twp. Fire Div., Slip Opinion No. 2008-Ohio-2792.

For those who think hunting for legislative intent is just an exercise dreamed up by professors to introduce law students to obstructions, note how the Court examined the prior statute and concluded that “the General Assembly purposely replaced the phrase ‘free from nuisance’ with ‘other negligent failure to remove obstructions.’ To find otherwise is to conclude that the legislature’s action in amending the statute was a superfluous act. We are persuaded that the legislature’s action in amending R.C. 2744.02(B)(3) was not whimsy, but a deliberate effort to limit political subdivisions’ liability for injuries and deaths on their roadways.”


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