## Facts

- Twanda Green drove in a six-vehicle procession transporting rental vehicles in Orlando, Florida.
- Green traveled west on Pine Street toward a “T” intersection with Sidney Hayes Road and faced a yield sign.
- While attempting a left turn onto Sidney Hayes Road, Green’s vehicle was struck by an approaching dump truck.
- Green died from injuries sustained in the collision.
- Cecelia Davis, as personal representative of Green’s estate, sued multiple defendants, including Beverly Williams, the owner of residential property adjacent to the intersection.
- The complaint alleged foliage on Williams’s property obstructed Green’s view of traffic at the intersection and contributed to the crash.
- For purposes of the Florida Supreme Court’s review, the foliage was assumed to be wholly within Williams’s property boundaries and not extending into the public right-of-way.

## Issues

1. Whether Florida’s “foreseeable zone of risk” duty analysis creates a duty for a residential landowner to adjacent motorists based on sight-obstructing foliage located wholly within the landowner’s property lines.
2. Whether a landowner’s duty differs when foliage extends into the public right-of-way and interferes with motorists’ safe travel.

## Decision

- The Florida Supreme Court exercised jurisdiction on a certified question of great public importance and reworded it to focus on residential property and non-encroaching foliage.
- The Court answered the reworded certified question in the negative.
- The Court held residential landowners owe no duty to motorists on abutting roadways regarding maintenance of foliage located wholly within the property boundaries.
- The Court clarified that all property owners have a duty not to allow foliage to grow beyond property bounds into the public right-of-way in a manner that interferes with safe travel on adjacent roadways.

## Legal Principles

- In Florida negligence law, duty is a question of law analyzed through whether a defendant’s conduct creates a foreseeable “zone of risk” posing a general threat of harm.
- The zone-of-risk framework applies to private landowners, but it does not impose a duty to motorists for foliage that remains entirely within a residential property.
- A duty exists when a property condition physically encroaches into the public right-of-way and foreseeably interferes with motorists’ ability to travel safely.

## Conclusion

Florida law does not impose a duty on residential landowners to protect adjacent motorists from sight obstructions caused solely by foliage contained within the landowner’s property lines, but it does impose a duty to prevent foliage from encroaching into the public right-of-way and creating hazards for roadway users.


Williams v. Davis, 974 So. 2d 1052 (Fla. 2007)