Dean v. Com., Dept. of Transp.

OPINION

ZAPPALA, Justice.

We granted allocatur to determine whether the absence of a guardrail is a dangerous condition of Commonwealth realty for purposes of the real estate exception to sovereign immunity. For the reasons that follow, we hold that the failure to erect a guardrail does not constitute a dangerous condition of Commonwealth realty.1 As the real estate exception does not apply, the Commonwealth Court erred by refusing to grant summary judgment in favor of the Commonwealth.

The undisputed facts establish that on January 26, 1991, Stacey L. Dean, Appellee, was a passenger in a 1987…