Quote Quoting Mr. Knowitall
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All over the country, snow is plowed leaving berms and ridges on private property. If you think that snow is hauled away in trucks throughout the nation... aren't you from a state with snowy winters? Many cities can barely afford to run plows. Detroit alone has Detroit has 1884 miles of residential streets. You think it hauls that snow away?

As for your gut feeling that governmental immunity doesn't apply, well, that and a buck will get you a cup of coffee. Can you produce even one case, from anywhere in the nation, where a municipality was held liable for any form of actionable tort by plowing snow from the street onto somebody's land?
we aren't talking about simple plowing. We are speaking of a dumping grounds. and yes, many municipalities do haul the snow away. Towards the end of winter, if it has been a heavy snowfall, pushing it around on the streets just doesn;t work anymore so it must be hauled away in trucks.

especially in a city where there is no place to push the snow, they have to haul it away. You think it just evaporates once they push it around for awhile? In a city, there are often no lots, either municipal or private that could even allow the snow to be placed there. They have to do something with it.

and to court cases; I have not experienced any municipality dumb enough to put snow on a private property. In the 6 cities within 30 miles of me, they all push it around until there is no more room to push it around. Then, they get out the front end loaders and dump trucks and haul it away.

I do know that in 1978 when we experienced enough snow to close the entire area for at least 3 days (36 inches in about 2 days time) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1978 , one loader driver was shot at for placing snow on private property and when one placed snow on my property, a friendly reminder of what happened the last time a loader driver did that (and not in a threatening way) was all that was required for him to scoop it back up and move it.

Nobody was in any mood to have 10 feet of snow piled in their yard and it did not happen without permission. I did have an empty lot next door they were free to use and did after our discussion.


we actually had tracked personnel carriers on the roads after a couple days as that was the only thing that could get through. They helicoptered people into stores so they could open them and sell whatever foodstuffs they had on the shelves.

You want snow? Here is snow:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qH8n9B92oe...izzardof78.jpg

I do know what snowfall is and I do see how it is handled. It is not by putting it on a persons yard and damaging their property.

so, rather than me trying to find cases where municipalities were successfully sued, how about you finding a few where the suit was dismissed because of governmental immunity.

here is as close as I can find for immediate support. It is a land use ordinance that actually requires snow dumping areas to be zoned for such:

http://www.aspenpitkin.com/Portals/0...aff%20Memo.pdf

go down to page 10 and you will see why nobody should ever be forced to allow snow dumping on their property. It can cause great harm to many aspects of the natural land and water table.

and here is a bulletin from a city addressing their snow dumping:

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science...sue/index.html