The appeals court ordered a new trail for Patrick Stewart of Rochester who appealed a jury verdict finding him solely negligent for his own injuries when he collided with a motor vehicle on a private driveway crossing the Douglas Trail, according to the Rochester Post-Bulletin.
Stewart, who suffered a broken neck, filed a negligence claim against Christopher Koenig and his mother, Jean Marie, who owned the vehicle. When the case went to trial in November 2007, presiding Judge Joseph Chase ruled that Koenig was not a trail user and thus not beholden to a DNR rule requiring him to yield the right-of-way to anyone already on the trail as he crossed it.
The jury agreed Stewart suffered permanent injury but found him, and not the driver, negligent. No damages were awarded. Stewart’s request for a new trial was denied by the district court.
The appeals court reversed that decision and ordered a new trial. Furthermore, the judges ruled that drivers crossing a state recreational trail are trail users and subject to trail rules, including yielding the right-of-way. This fact should have been included in the jury instructions, the appeals court said.
top of page
Visitor Comments »
top of page