Murray v. Chillicothe’s Empirical Analysis
2005
Citation profile
16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently February 2020
16 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Dresher v. Burt · Harless v. Willis Day Warehousing Co. · Mitseff v. Wheeler · Bostic v. Connor · State ex rel. Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers v. Sheward
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Murray argues that his injury occurred because of the city’s failure to maintain the storm-sewer grate. The city disagrees, arguing that the injury stems from the design of the storm-sewer grate. It contends that Murray’s injury occurred because of the width of the grate’s openings, which is “simply a matter of the design of the grate.” Webster’s Dictionary defines “maintenance” as the “act of maintaining or state of being maintained.” Webster’s New College Dictionary (1999) 660. It defines “maintain” as “To preserve or keep in a given existing condition, as of efficiency or good repair.” Id. The deposition testimony presented indicates that the accident in this case occurred because the openings in the storm-sewer grate were too wide. There is no evidence that the four-inch openings existed because the grate was in a state of disrepair. Rather, the evidence indicates that the grate was designed with four-inch openings. Because Murray’s injury did not result from the catch-basin grate’s being in a state of disrepair, we cannot say that this case involves the maintenance of a storm-sewer system. In most instances, the government’s duty to maintain a structure does not include the duty to upgrade it to current construction standards. See Treese v. Delaware (1994), 95 Ohio App.3d 536, 543 [ 642 N.E.2d 1147 ], stating in the context of highways that maintenance involves only the preservation of existing facilities, and not the initiation of substantial improvements (but leaving u”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Municipal corporations shall have special power to regulate the use of the streets. Except as provided in section 5501.49 of the Revised Code, the legislative authority of a municipal corporation shall have the care, supervision, and control of the public highways, streets, avenues, alleys, sidewalks, public grounds, bridges, aqueducts, and viaducts within the municipal corporation. The liability or immunity from liability of a municipal corporation for injury, death, or loss to person or property allegedly caused by a failure to perform the responsibilities imposed by this section shall be determined pursuant to divisions (A) and (B)(3) of section 2744.02 of the Revised Code.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.