Appellate Court Addresses Liability Issues Relative to Placement of Bus Stop In Pedestrian Injury Case

Bus Stop

In the case of Essington v. Monroe Co. Trans. Auth., No. 1081 C.D. 2022 (Pa. Cmwlth. July 11, 2023 McCullough, J., Dumas, J., and Wallace, J.) (Op. by McCullough, J.), the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania affirmed in part and reversed in part and remanded in part a trial court decision regarding the liability of certain Defendants in a case where a pedestrian was struck by a motorist after exiting from a bus at a bus stop near a residential development.

The appellate court held that, although the trial court properly ruled that PennDOT and the residential development had no control over safety conditions of a local transit authority’s bus stop, the trial court erred in granting the local transit authority summary judgment where there were allegations that the transit authority’s driver’s use of high beams allegedly blinded the other driver who struck the decedent.

The appellate court otherwise affirmed the entry of summary judgment in favor of PennDOT and the residential homeowner’s association.

The trial court had ruled that PennDOT was not liable because the real estate exception did not apply to policies or activities such as designing state roads.

The trial court had ruled that the homeowner’s association was not liable because it had no control over the bus stops and owed no duty to permit the transit authority buses to enter the development.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.  To view the Court's September 23, 2023 Order changing its July 11, 2023 Opinion on the case from a Memorandum Opinion to an Opinion that shall be reported, please click HERE.

Source: “Digest of Recent Opinions.” Pennsylvania Law Weekly (Sept. 19, 2023).

Judge Williamson of Monroe County Finds that Transit Authority Had No Duty Where Plaintiff Assumed Risk of Injury

In another decision out of the case of Essington v. Monroe County Transit Auth., No. 5117-CV-2020 (C.P. Monroe Co. Aug. 15, 2022 Williamson, J.), the court granted the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by the Defendant, Monroe County Transit Authority in a matter where a Plaintiff was injured after exiting a bus at a bus stop and being struck by an oncoming vehicle under nighttime conditions.

According to the Opinion, the Plaintiff alleged that the Defendant, Monroe County Transit Authority, was negligent relative to the selection of the location of the bus stop which was allegedly inherently dangerous.

The court applied the Sovereign Immunity Act, 42 Pa. C.S.A. §8542.

Under the Sovereign Immunity Act, local governmental agencies are not liable for damages unless (1) the damages would be recoverable under common law, and (2) the injury was caused by a negligent act of the local government of its agent that fell within one of the enumerated exceptions to tort immunity. 

One of the exceptions under 42 Pa. C.S.A. §8542(b)(1) includes accidents caused by the operation of any motor vehicle.

The Plaintiff based their claims for a recovery based upon an allegation that the location of the bus stop was dangerous and that the harm to the Plaintiff was a foreseeable risk.

The court agreed that the stopping of the bus at the bus stop for passengers to disembark was part of the operation of the bus that was owned by the governmental agency.

However, the court found that, based upon the evidence presented, the acts or omissions by the Monroe County Transit Authority were not the proximate cause of the decedent’s harm. While the Defendant chose the location of the bus stop, that Defendant was not responsible for the narrow shoulder, the lack of guardrails, sidewalks, lights, bus shelters, or cut-a-ways in the roadway for passengers to the cross the street.

Rather, the road was owned by PennDOT and the Monroe County Transit Authority had no control over the conditions of the roadway.

The court also noted that the record before the court also showed the decedent was wearing dark clothing during this nighttime accident and was also wearing headphones plugged into his phone when he was crossing street. 

As such, the court found that the allegedly defective conditions at the site did not cause the Plaintiff’s death. The court noted that wider shoulders, guardrails, sidewalks, lighting, a bus shelter, or a road cut-a-way would not have protected the decedent from the accident. 

Rather, the court stated, the accident occurred, according to the facts gathered during discovery, because the decedent was distracted and crossed the road in front of an oncoming vehicle under nighttime conditions. The court also noted that there was no evidence that better lighting in the area would have prevented the accident.

The court also agreed with the Defendant, Monroe County Transit Authority, that the bus stop was generally safe. There was no prior notice of any other accidents at the stop or that the bus stop was dangerous in any way.

The court additionally noted that the decedent did not have to get off at this stop. There were a total of five (5) stops in the area where the Plaintiff had disembarked. As such, the court found that the decedent assumed the risk of getting off at this particular stop, when he could have gotten off at other stops. As such, the court found that any duty that the Defendant, Monroe County Transit Authority may have had in this matter was extinguished by the actions of the decedent and his assumption of the risk of his injury.

As such, for these multiple reasons, Judge David J. Williamson of the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas granted the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by the Defendant, Monroe County Transit Authority.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this case may click this LINK.

Source: “Digest of Recent Opinions.” Pennsylvania Law Weekly (Oct. 3, 2022).

Source of image: Photo by Darren Viollet from www.pexels.com.

Sovereign Immunity Supports Summary Judgment In Favor Of PennDOT Relative to Claims Regarding Placement of a Bus Stop

In the case of Essington v. Monroe County Transit Auth., No. 5117-CV-2020 (C.P. Monroe Co. Aug. 15, 2022 Williamson, J.), the court granted the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by the Defendant, PennDOT, in a case involving a pedestrian Plaintiff who had exited a bus and was struck while crossing the roadway under nighttime conditions.

The Plaintiff alleged that PennDOT was negligent by allowing a dangerous condition to occur on its property, i.e., the roadway. More specifically, the Plaintiff alleged that PennDOT was negligent in the planning, designing, controlling, locating, and designation of a bus stop on a state road in a manner that created dangerous conditions.

The Plaintiff also faulted PennDOT for failing to erect signs, lights, guardrails, bus shelters, crosswalks, or other features to protect disembarking bus passengers.

In granting the Motion for Summary Judgment, the court relied upon the Sovereign Immunity Act under 42 Pa. C.S.A. §8522(b). 

The court found that none of the exceptions under that Act were applicable to the case presented. The court emphasized that, in order for liability to attach to PennDOT, a dangerous condition must derive, originate, or have its source that the Commonwealth realty. This is also known as the real estate exception to Sovereign Immunity.

Judge David J. Williamson noted that the Plaintiff’s allegations did not implicate any alleged defects on the land itself. The court noted that, had PennDOT installed the items noted by the Plaintiff, and those items were defective in some manner, then PennDOT could be held liable. However, under Pennsylvania law, the failure to install the items noted by the Plaintiff did not implicate an exception to the immunity afforded the governmental agency under Pennsylvania law.

The court additionally noted that where the Co-Defendant, Monroe County Transit Authority, chose to have a bus stop was not a material defect of the real estate itself and was not a condition created by PennDOT. 

Rather, the Co-Defendant, Monroe County Transit Authority, was the entity that chose where to have their bus stops. The court noted that the Plaintiff did not produce any evidence that PennDOT played any part in the decision to allow the bus stop in the area or any evidence that the business was a dangerous condition of the real estate itself.

The court also rejected the Plaintiff’s argument that PennDOT was negligent for allowing the bus stop to exist and in failing to take steps to inspect, discover, or correct any defects, or to ensure that the real estate was safe for its regular and intended use as a bus stop. The court ruled that the real property exception to the Sovereign Immunity Act only applies to a dangerous condition of Commonwealth real estate and not to negligent policies or activities regarding real estate. The court noted that a failure to inspect has been previously ruled in Pennsylvania to be a policy or an activity which is not within the real estate exception to the immunity statute.

The court also noted that the intended use of the road was as a roadway for vehicular traffic and not for the placement of bus stops. As such, any allegations by the Plaintiff regarding a lack of lighting, narrow shoulders, or safe pedestrian accommodations such as crosswalks, sidewalks, or pedestrian crossing signs, were found not to relate to the design of the roadway itself or to its use as a roadway. As such, those allegations did not serve to defeat PennDOT’s Motion for Summary Judgment. In sum, the court found that the Plaintiff’s expert had not offered any opinion that the roadway itself as designed, caused the accident.

For all of these reasons, and others, the court granted summary judgment in favor of PennDOT.

Anyone wishing to review this decision may click this LINK    


Source: “Digest of Recent Opinions.” Pennsylvania Law Weekly (Oct. 3, 2022).

Court Finds No Liability Against Property Owners Assocation Relative to Location of Bus Stop

Judge David J. Williamson of the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas recently addressed the liability of homeowners associations in the case of Essington v. Monroe Co. Transit Auth., No. 5117-CV-2020 (C.P. Monroe Co. Aug. 15, 2022).

In Essington, the plaintiff’s decedent was fatally injured when he was hit by an oncoming car at night after exiting a bus at a bus stop that was located just outside of the residential gated community known as the Pocono Country Place Property Owners Association. 

The plaintiff asserted that the property owners association was negligent for failing to ensure that the bus stop located outside of their gated community was safe and/or for not allowing the buses to come inside the gated community to drop off passengers.

The court granted summary judgment in favor of the property owners association after finding that the property owners association had no control over the bus company’s selection and location of its bus stops and that, therefore, the property owners association owed no duty to the plaintiff’s decedent in this regard. 

The court additionally confirmed that there was no evidence in the record that the property owners association encouraged or endorsed its residents to use the bus system, let alone to use it at any particular stop.

Anyone wishing to review this decision may click this LINK.

Source:  "Digest of Recent Decisions. Pennsylvania Law Weekly (Oct. 3, 2022).

Source of image:  Photo by Darren Viollet on www.pexels.com.