GERTRUDE HILL, AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF JOHNNY MACK DAVIS, DECEASED, APPELLANT,
v.
CITY OF LAKELAND, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
A governmental entity has no duty to warn of a known, naturally occurring dangerous condition which it did not create.
Plaintiff's decedent drowned while attempting to rescue a friend entangled in naturally occurring weeds in a lake. The City of Lakeland did not create…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Governmental Immunity cases and more on FLexlaw
RYDER, Chief Judge.
In this tragic case of misadventure, Johnny Mack Davis and a friend were fishing at Lake Wire m Lakeland when the friend attempted to dislodge an ensnarled fishing line and became entangled in submerged aquatic weeds. Davis, in an effort to rescue his friend, unfortunately drowned. Davis’s personal representative sought damages from the City of Lakeland for wrongful death.
The parties stipulated that the weeds were a naturally occurring condition which the City did not create. They further stipulated that both Davis and the City knew the weeds were present in Lake Wire and the City had no superior knowledge of this fact. The trial court dismissed the complaint with prejudice, finding that the complaint failed to state a cause of action in that the City had no duty to warn of a known, naturally occurring, potentially hazardous condition which the City did nothing to create.
Were that it were otherwise, natural instincts would lead to a different result. But, the law is clear. A governmental entity has no duty to warn of a known dangerous condition which it did not create. City of St. Petersburg v. Collom, 419 So. 2d 1082 (Fla.1982).
Affirmed.
CAMPBELL and FRANK, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Avallone v. Bd. OF Cnty. Comm'rs OF Citrus Cnty., 493 So. 2d 1002 (Fla. 1986)…d the dangerous condition, knew it to be dangerous, and the danger was not readily apparent to those persons who might sustain an injury as a result of it. E.g., City of St. Petersburg v. Collum, 419 So. 2d 1082 (Fla.1982); Hill v. City of Lakeland, 466 So. 2d 1231 (Fla. 2d DCA), review denied, 476 So. 2d 674 (Fla.1985); Sarasota County, 476 So. 2d at 217; Barrera v. State Department of Transportation, 470 So. 2d 750 (Fla. 3d DCA), review denied, 480 So. 2d 1293 (Fla.1985). If a plaintiff could show this three…
-
Saga BAY Prop. Owners Ass'n v. Askew, 513 So. 2d 691 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)…In the present case, none of the conditions which the Askews contend were so dangerous to their child provide a basis for owner liability. The plant-life and debris found in the lake at Saga Bay were certainly not unusual. Hill v. City of Lakeland, 466 So. 2d 1231 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985) (no duty to warn of naturally occurring aquatic weeds that caused boy to drown in city-owned lake); Ochampaugh v. City of Seattle, 91 Wash.2d 514, 588 P. 2d 1351 (1979) (no liability even though pond had boggy edges and debris-lad…
-
Sarasota Cnty. v. Butler, 476 So. 2d 216 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985)…and maintenance, thus inviting the public to make use of it, was no less within its “judgmental, planning-level” function. It was neither the beach nor the operation of it, but the water, which caused the child’s death. Cf. Hill v. City of Lakeland, 466 So. 2d 1231 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985) (“a naturally occurring, potentially hazardous condition which the City did nothing to create”). There is nothing before us to suggest, let alone to establish, that Sarasota County failed to fulfill an operational-level duty. Fi…
Previewing 3 of 5 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- City OF ST. Petersburg v. Collom, 419 So. 2d 1082 (Fla. 1982)