Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on April 27, 2011, to revise the law that establishes the extent to which a person can sue a local government or officials for failure to perform a governmental function. The bill would reverse the effect of a recent Supreme Court case related to sidewalk cracks. The court held that a statute establishing that a government is liable only for a sidewalk defect or “discontinuity” greater than two inches applies only to county roads. The bill would extend this to a sidewalk adjacent to “any municipal, county or state” highway, street or road

The vote was 102 in favor, 8 opposed and 0 not voting

(House Roll Call 221 at House Journal 0)

Click here to view bill details.

 

This is a great law, but ignorance of the law is often exercised by city officials- I live in Bay City and have filed (2) written separate complaints about my city side walk. Due to (City) trees located on city property parallel to the side walk the sidewalk has lifted over 4 inches, I have personally witnessed several people trip on this gap (Nothing) has been done. I live in a upper class part of the city, many people walk these sidewalks on a daily basis, its just a matter of time and someone will be injured, so they can sue, money can not buy health.