Gatlin-Johnson v. Miles City
Annotate this CaseWhen Plaintiff brought her daughter to play in a city park, the child fell from a slide in the playground area and suffered a severe head injury. Plaintiff sued the City for negligently failing to maintain a safe depth of impact-absorbing material in the area under the slide. The district court granted summary judgment to the City, (1) determining that the "public duty doctrine" applied in this case, that the City owed no duty to Plaintiff's daughter, and therefore, the City could not be held liable for the accident; and (2) rejecting Plaintiff's argument that the recreational use statute applied to this case and imposed liability upon the City for willful or wanton misconduct. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) based upon an analysis of foreseeability, it was reasonable and proper to hold the City to a duty to exercise reasonable care in maintaining its public parks, and thus, the public duty doctrine did not apply here; and (2) the recreational use statute applied to this case, and the determination of whether the City's conduct rose to the level of willful or wanton misconduct should be decided at trial.
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