City of Hialeah Gardens v. Castellanos, 51 Fla. L. Weekly D256 (Fla. 3d DCA Feb. 11, 2026):

The plaintiff was involved in a head-on collision on a City street after another driver crossed into the opposing lane. The plaintiff sued the City, alleging the City made the crash more likely by failing to install or implement roadway markings and warnings (including no passing zone striping and signage warning drivers not to pass into the opposing lane) that were part of the design. The plaintiff framed the negligence as an operational failure to build or implement what was designed, and not as a critique of the design choices. The trial court denied the City’s motion to dismiss.

The City took a nonfinal appeal based on sovereign immunity. The Third DCA affirmed.

It held that taking the complaint’s allegations as true, the plaintiff pled an operational level implementation failure and had not alleged a cause of action based on the planning level decision about whether to install traffic control devices or how to design the roadway. Because there is no sovereign immunity for operational level decisions, the trial court properly denied the motion to dismiss.