Hanif

This personal injury action arises out of an accident that occurred on defendant Housing Authority’s property in which an automobile struck and injured plaintiff, Sajjad Hanif. Following a bench trial, judgment was entered for plaintiff. Defendant appeals, challenging various of the court’s findings and conclusions respecting liability and special damages. We shall modify the judgment to reduce the amount of special damages awarded. As modified, the judgment will be affirmed.

Facts

On September 3, 1979, at about 7 p.m., plaintiff, then seven years old, and Betty Brady, an adult companion, were cutting flowers from oleander bushes along a two-foot strip of land abutting Donelly Circle in Woodland. Donelly Circle is a 26-foot-wide paved, unmarked roadway running through defendant’s housing project. The strip of land on which the oleander bushes were planted is directly across Donelly Circle from the housing project and is owned and maintained by defendant. Growth from the tall bushes was spilling across the curb and protruding into Donelly Circle for a distance of one to two feet. Plaintiff dropped his scissors and, in retrieving them, stepped onto the roadway and into…