Emily Johnson v. Scott Gibson

ORDER

Pursuant to the parties’ joint motion, we certify two questions to the Oregon Supreme Court. Plaintiff Emily Johnson filed this state law negligence action against Scott Gibson and Robert Stillson, two park maintenance employees of the City of Portland, after she fell and was injured while jogging in Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park. This appeal raises two questions that may be determinative of Johnson’s cause of action: (1) whether city maintenance workers are “owners” of the park and hence entitled to immunity under the Oregon Public Use of Lands Act, ORS 105.672 to 105.700; and (2), if so, whether the Public Use of Lands Act violates the remedy clause, Art. I, section 10, of the Oregon Constitution. Because it appears to this court that there is no controlling precedent on these questions in the decisions of the Oregon Supreme Court and the Oregon Court of Appeals, we respectfully certify them to the Oregon Supreme Court.

I. Factual and Procedural History

The following facts are undisputed. See W. Helicopter Servs., Inc. v. Rogerson Aircraft Corp., 311 Or. 361, 364-65 , 811 P.2d 627, 630 (1991). Waterfront Park is owned by the City of Portland and maintained…