Appeals court: City can be sued over faded crosswalk; will comparative negligence still bar claim?
An Oregon appeals court has reversed a trial judge’s dismissal of a claim against the city of Portland over faded crosswalk stripes, agreeing with the family of a woman killed in a 2009 accident that better maintenance of the crosswalk might have helped prevent the death of Lindsay Leonard, 23.
She and another woman were fatally struck by a vehicle driven by a grocery store manager, reports the Oregonian.
But it isn’t just the city’s potential liability to Leonard’s survivors that could be affected by the appellate court ruling: All defendants had been absolved of liability after a jury decided in 2011 that Leonard herself was 51 percent at fault. Now, at a new trial, her family will be able to try again to win damages against the grocery store and the driver and, if Leonard’s own negligence is deemed to be less than 51 percent, will be allowed to collect.
Blog posts by the Law Offices of Timothy Grabe and Olson Brooksby explain the state’s comparative negligence statute,
