Conrad v. Walker Bank Trust Company

1 Citing case

  1. Rose v. Provo City

    2003 UT App. 77 (Utah Ct. App. 2003)   Cited 9 times
    Holding that a landowner has a duty to use due care to keep an abutting public way in a suitable and safe condition only when the landowner makes "special use" of the public way for some other purpose than merely using it as a public way

    See Shayne v. Stanley Sons, Inc., 605 P.2d 775, 776 (Utah 1980). ΒΆ 12 When an abutting landowner makes "special use" of a public sidewalk, or as in the present case, a planter strip, he has a duty that runs with the land to use "due care" to keep it in a "suitable and safe" condition for the public to travel over. Salt Lake City v. Schuback, 108 Utah 266, 159 P.2d 149, 153 (1945); see Conrad v. Walker Bank Trust Co., 542 P.2d 1090, 1090 (Utah 1975) ("By utilizing [and maintaining] the area between the street and sidewalk" an owner of land abutting a public way becomes "charged with a duty to do so in a nonnegligent manner the same as if [he] . . . owned the land."); Tripp v. Granite Holding Co., 22 Utah 2d 175, 450 P.2d 99, 100 (1969) (noting an abutting landowner's obligation to keep sidewalk adjoining premises in repair "`can only arise where he creates through use or otherwise some unsafe or dangerous condition'" (citation omitted)). An abutting landowner makes "special use" of a public sidewalk or a planter strip, when he uses it "`for some other purpose than merely using [it] as a public sidewalk [or a planter strip], such as a driveway.'"