Physicians Plus Insurance v. Midwest Mutual Insurance

¶ 1. Dodge County, the Town of Leroy, several officials of each, Donald and Ermanelda Franke and their farm corporation, and the liability insurers for all of the foregoing, appeal an order granting partial summary judgment in favor of plaintiff Timothy Smith. The trial court concluded that the County, the Town, and the Frankes each had a duty to eliminate the safety hazard created by low-hanging tree branches which obscured a stop sign, that each failed to do so, and that the obscuration of the sign was a cause of the accident in which Smith was injured. Accordingly, it ordered that only the…