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WALKER - Judge John P. Smith has ruled in Cass County District Court that the county and the city of East Gull Lake, under the Minnesota recreational use immunity statute, are not liable for the injuries a bicyclist suffered while riding on a trail in East Gull Lake.

The judge issued a final judgment Sept. 28. Administrator Robert Yochum provided the ruling to the county board this week.

Wiljo Tuomi, an 81-year-old experienced bicyclist, was traveling on the paved trail in East Gull Lake with his grandson, July 30, 2008, when he failed to follow a curve in the trail by a driveway. He saw grass ahead, turned sharply and fell off the driveway onto culverts below, according to findings of fact in the case.

The city and county had a 2007 joint powers agreement to facilitate building the multi-use recreational trail, which opened in June 2008.

"Nothing in the record demonstrates that the county or city had actual knowledge that the path as constructed would likely cause death or serious injury. There are no reports of other bicycle accidents at this point in the trail, complaints from previous trail users or any other evidence to prove actual knowledge (there was a risk to users)," the judge found.

Smith ruled, "It was not a concealed danger."

The judge did leave for a jury to decide whether lack of signage or the design and construction of the path was the proximate cause of the injury and is one where reasonable minds could differ, thus leaving open Tuomi's suit against the design/engineer Short Elliot Hendrickson and construction contractor Anderson Brothers Construction.

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