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Johnson v. Texas Department of Transportation8/16/1995
Ronald W. Johnson, Jr. appeals from a take-nothing judgment, based on a directed verdict, in his causes of action for personal injuries brought against the Texas Department of Transportation (the "Department") under the Texas Tort Claims Act (the "Act"). We will affirm the trial-court judgment.
THE CONTROVERSY
In early morning darkness, Johnson drove a convertible automobile across Knickerbocker Road at its intersection with Spillway Road in Tom Green County, crashing into a barbed-wire fence on the far side of Knickerbocker and sustaining personal injuries. The following diagram illustrates the general circumstances:
"Johnson alleged the Department was liable for his injuries on the following alternate theories: (1) the Department was negligent in certain acts and omissions described hereafter; (2) the intersection was a dangerous condition on Department land, a "premise defect"; or (3) certain aspects of the intersection amounted to a "special defect." We need not discuss Johnson's negligence cause of action because, as we understand his petition, he complains of acts and omissions of the Department only insofar as they created either a "premise defect" or a "special defect," the subjects of his other two causes of action on which the trial court directed a take-nothing verdict at the close of the evidence."
SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE
The following facts are undisputed in the evidence: Johnson sustained personal injuries when he drove his automobile across Knickerbocker and into the barbed-wire fence; because of the official classification of the intersecting roadways, Tom Green County bore responsibility for maintenance on Spillway while the Department bore such responsibility on Knickerbocker; the Department placed a stop sign within its Knickerbocker right-of-way some twenty feet from the traveled part of Spillway, at the approximate location shown in the diagram above; a Department engineer selected the location of the sign while supervising a construction project at the intersection approximately six months before the day Johnson sustained his injuries; and the sign was installed accordingly.
Johnson introduced evidence to the following effect: no signs on Spillway warned eastbound motorists they were approaching a stop sign, a through highway, or a "T" intersection; in approaching Knickerbocker, Johnson did not know the circumstances of the intersection; he was driving in excess of 52 miles per hour, which contributed to his injuries; the stop sign at Knickerbocker was obscured by trees and vegetation on Spillway; the location of the stop sign was such that a motorist driving at a prudent speed could not see the sign until it was too late to effect a timely stop at Knickerbocker; he was unfamiliar with Spillway and the intersection; a Department regulation required the placing of stop signs at a point six to twelve feet from the traveled part of the roadway; as a stop sign is placed further than twelve feet, it becomes progressively more difficult for a motorist to see it, in his peripheral vision, in time to stop before entering the intersection; such was the case here where the sign was located some twenty feet from the traveled part of Spillway; the higher grade on Knickerbocker obscured in the dark the fact that another road intersected Spillway; the glow of lights from nearby businesses created an illusion that Spillway continued easterly without an intersection roadway; and the condition of the intersection was a contributing cause of his failure to effect a timely stop at Knickerbocker and of his resulting injuries.
The Department adduced evidence that a Department engineer, supervising the earlier constructi
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