INDIANAPOLIS (Legal Newsline) – A property owner that let its grass grow tall enough to obscure the view of motorists, possibly causing a serious wreck, has again been victorious in a court ruling.
On Aug. 20, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled for Tyson Fresh Meats, which owns a property in Wayne County adjacent to where a man on a motorcycle suffered catastrophic brain injuries from a wreck with a 92-year-old man performing a U-turn in 2014.
The company had stopped mowing the area near a drainage ditch after the retirement of an employee two years before the wreck.
“Tyson highlights (John) Lewellen’s testimony that he mowed solely for aesthetic reasons,” Judge Mark Bailey wrote. “Thus, according to Tyson, Lewellen never intended to render a service to the motorists at the public intersection.
“But regardless of Lewellen’s motivation or Tyson’s acquiescence, Lewell ceased mowing upon his retirement in 2012. (Plaintiff Judy) Reece has suggested that an assumed duty cannot be abandoned, but she provides no authority for this proposition, and we are aware of none.”
A police report said the grass “would have limited or prohibited the view of Driver 1 to see Vehicle 2 traveling southbound.”
Judge John Baker dissented, writing that a jury or judge needed to resolve questions of population density in the area as well as whether Tyson reasonably maintained the grass.
“Our appellate courts have held that private property owners bear a duty of reasonable care in the use of their property in a way that does not interfere with safe travel on public roadways,” Baker wrote.
Baker cited a ruling that said that rule is invoked in an area of “sufficient population density.”