Trees Hid the Stop Sign: Can You Sue the City? Pelletier v. Campbell Says Usually Not

Published June 26, 2018 · Ohio Supreme Court

Every summer, the trees and bushes along Dayton-area side streets fill in, and every summer some stop signs disappear behind them. A driver who does not know the neighborhood rolls through an intersection she never realized was there, and someone gets hurt.

Who is responsible when overgrown foliage hides a stop sign? On June 5, 2018, the Ohio Supreme Court gave a narrow answer about one potential defendant, the city. Pelletier v. Campbell, Slip Opinion No. 2018-Ohio-2121. If you are hurt in a crash like this, the decision changes where you need to look for compensation, so it is worth understanding.

What happened in Pelletier

On August 26, 2013, Judith Pelletier, a high-school nurse, was driving on Sanderson Avenue in the city of Campbell, Ohio. At 12th Street, traffic on Sanderson must stop; traffic on 12th Street has the right-of-way. Ms. Pelletier said she never saw the stop sign because trees or large bushes in the "devil strip," the grassy strip between the street and the sidewalk, blocked it from view. She drove through the intersection and collided with a car on 12th Street.

She sued the city, the owner of the property where the foliage grew, the bank that had begun foreclosure on that property, and a company that had contracted to maintain it. She later settled with the maintenance company. The city's street superintendent measured the distance between the foliage and the stop sign: 34 feet, two inches.

The trial court and the Seventh District Court of Appeals refused to dismiss the claims against the city. The Supreme Court reversed.

How Ohio's government-immunity law works

Cities, counties, townships, and other local governments are generally immune from injury lawsuits under R.C. Chapter 2744, subject to specific exceptions. Our page on claims against the government explains the framework. One exception, R.C. 2744.02(B)(3), makes a political subdivision liable for its negligent failure to keep public roads "in repair" and its negligent failure to "remove obstructions from public roads."

What counts as a "public road" matters enormously. Under R.C. 2744.01(H), the term does not include berms, shoulders, or rights-of-way, but it does include traffic-control devices that are required by the Ohio Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. That distinction already cost one family dearly in a road-edge case I wrote about in Baker v. Wayne County.

In December 2016, in Bibler v. Stevenson, 150 Ohio St.3d 144, 2016-Ohio-8449, a divided Supreme Court held that a mandated stop sign in Findlay that a police officer found was significantly obstructed by tree foliage was part of the "public road," so the city was not immune and the case could go forward. That was a meaningful win for injured people.

What the Court decided

In Pelletier, everyone agreed the stop sign was mandated, so it was part of the public road. The question was whether the city failed to keep it "in repair" or failed to "remove obstructions from" it. The five-justice majority said no on both counts:

• "In repair" means physical condition. A stop sign is in repair if it is in good, sound condition, not deteriorated or disassembled. Photographs showed this sign was fine. Foliage growing elsewhere is an "extraneous factor" that does not make a sound sign out of repair.
• An obstruction must be on the public road itself. The Court read the word "from" literally: a city must remove obstructions from the road, a bridge, or a mandated sign. Because the foliage was 34 feet away and not on the sign, there was nothing to remove "from" the sign. In the Court's words, the statute "creates no duty to remove foliage from the devil strip" when it is that far in front of the sign "and not on the sign itself."

The Court also noted that the General Assembly, when it rewrote the statute, chose not to impose a general duty on local governments to maintain vegetation along roads.

Chief Justice O'Connor, joined by Judge Harsha sitting by assignment, dissented on the obstruction question. She pointed out that from a driver's point of view it makes no difference whether leaves touching a sign or a tree two feet in front of it make the sign impossible to see. She would have held that a city can be liable for negligently failing to remove an obstacle that blocks a mandated sign from a driver's view at every distance where the sign would be effective.

Who this hurts

The practical effect is that a city is now responsible for a hidden stop sign only in narrow circumstances: when the sign itself is damaged or deteriorated, or when something is actually on the sign, such as branches growing over its face. The far more common situation, where trees and shrubs on a nearby strip of land block the sight line, will usually not support a claim against the city.

That matters to everyone at the intersection. It matters to the driver who misses a hidden sign, and it matters just as much to the driver with the right-of-way who is broadsided by someone who never saw the sign.

The paths that remain

Pelletier does not leave crash victims without options. It changes where we look:

• The property owner and anyone responsible for maintaining the land. Ms. Pelletier sued the landowner, the foreclosing bank, and a property-maintenance company, and she resolved her claim against the maintenance company. Overgrown landscaping that blocks a traffic sign can support a negligence claim against the people who control it.
• The other driver. In a right-of-way crash, the conduct of both drivers will be examined, including speed and attention approaching an intersection. See our page on intersection collisions.
• Your own coverage. When the responsible party has little or no insurance, your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage may fill the gap.
• Foliage on the sign. If branches or leaves were actually covering the sign's face, the city may still be liable under Pelletier's own reasoning, as it can be for road defects like the potholes I discussed in an earlier post.

Evidence fades as quickly as summer growth. Cities and landowners trim foliage after crashes. Photographs and video of the intersection, taken from a driver's position at several distances as soon as possible, are often the most important evidence in these cases.

What this means for you

If you were hurt at an intersection where a stop sign was hidden by trees or shrubs, do not assume no one is responsible, and do not assume the city is. After Pelletier, the claim usually lies against the people who own and maintain the land, alongside the drivers involved. Identifying them quickly, and documenting the sight line before it is cut back, is the key.