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Community Corner

Safety Especially Important when Snow and Sidewalks Meet

Though Wisconsin isn't quite covered in white yet, a reminder to keep sidewalks clear and people safe can never come too early for a season where snow and ice abound.

As we all dream of a white Christmas — which we have only been able to enjoy about every other year or so lately — it also means we are waiting to enter the next phase of Wisconsin seasons: snow season.  And snow season means removing snow.

Anyone that lives on property with a city sidewalk has an obligation to clear the snow for the public. By municipal ordinance, all owners, tenants, occupants or others in charge or control of any such building must ensure that the sidewalk is clear of snow and ice within 24 hours of the end of a snow, sleet or freezing rain storm. Failure to do so may result in the municipality clearing your sidewalk for you, but the cost will be assessed against the property and come out of your pocket.

Of course, a more expensive issue is one of liability if anyone actually gets hurt slipping on your walkway. Wisconsin presents an interesting standard of liability in cases where someone slips and gets hurt on a sidewalk.

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Generally speaking, a property owner is not responsible for injuries that occur on a public sidewalk. According to the Wisconsin courts, the duty to clear sidewalks is one given to the cities and villages. Although the municipality can require its residents or business owners to clear any sidewalks, subject to municipal fines or expenses, the city or village still owns the duty to ensure that the sidewalks are clean. It is a duty that the municipality may not give away or assign to someone else.

An exception to the rule takes shape where the accumulation of snow or ice is not a natural accumulation source. For example, anything that falls from the sky or melts from the grass onto a sidewalk and freezes is considered a natural accumulation. On the other hand, if someone shovels the snow from his driveway onto an otherwise cleared sidewalk, the accumulation is artificial. Under the artificially dangerous condition, the person who created the dangerous condition could be liable for any injuries to someone walking on a public sidewalk.

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Where this gets tricky, however, is where the accumulation is the natural melting process for an artificial situation.

For example, suppose that a building has a downspout that ordinarily removes water from its roof near or onto a sidewalk. That downspout is not a natural condition to the sidewalk. However, the existence of the downspout may create a dangerous condition in the winter through the natural melting process. An area of sidewalk that would otherwise be clear might pick up a coating of ice as water from the roof melts, drips onto the sidewalk and refreezes. Liability hinges on whether the situation is a man-made defective condition.

Courts have looked at a lot of factual situations to determine whether injuries from slips on sidewalks are the result of man-made defective conditions. Snow piled high onto a curb, while man-made, is not a defective artificial condition. Failure to shovel is defective, although not a man-made condition. Where a downspout is properly working and water still happens to find its way to a sidewalk, there is no defect to the man-made condition. On the other hand, clogged and defective gutters on a roof, which cause water to flow in one spot and accumulate as ice on the sidewalk are man-made defective conditions, as are driveway culverts that are inadequate and cause a back-up of water and ice at every thaw.

In Wisconsin, public places are held to a higher standard of liability than ordinary homeowners. Each business has a duty, under the “safe place statute” to keep its place of business as safe as reasonably possible. The line is drawn at any “place of employment” whether inside, outside or underground, and including the property surrounding. While a duplex or single-family home is excused from such liability, any business or apartment of three or more units is subject to the safe place standard.

In the safe place context, sidewalks may get categorized into public or private sidewalks. If the landowner exercises exclusive control of the sidewalk, the sidewalk is considered a private sidewalk and may subject the landowner to heightened duties. That landowner may need to take extra care and responsibility to ensure that the sidewalk is safe for employees, customers or other people who frequent the area.

The bottom line is that we all need to be extra careful to make sure that walkways around our properties are safe. While the law recognizes that this is Wisconsin and snow and ice happen frequently, we do still have some duties to our fellow residents and visitors to try to protect them from these conditions as best as possible. As we approach snow and ice season, be careful where you walk and try to keep walkways clean and dry for others.

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