AUSTIN (November 20, 2009)—The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of the City of Waco Friday in a lawsuit filed by Debra Kirwan whose son Brad McGehee fell to his death on April 24, 2004 from a cliff in Cameron Park while watching drag boat races on the Brazos River.

McGehee ignored a warning sign and crossed a wall to sit on the edge of the cliff when the rock beneath him crumbled and he fell about 60 feet to his death.

Kirwan sued in February 2005, alleging that the city was negligent and should have done more to keep park visitors from venturing beyond the existing warning signs and wall.

The trial court dismissed the suit, but a divided 10th Court of Appeals reversed the judgment.

The city appealed to the state Supreme Court, which heard arguments in February.

Waco argued that the city was protected by statute and that negligence could be established only by proving the city created conditions that a recreational user of the park would not have reasonably expected.

The Supreme Court agreed, ruling, “The risks inherent in a natural condition ordinarily will be foreseeable not only to the landowner but also to the recreational user. Even assuming the particular risk at the cliff’s edge – crumbling that gave way – was not necessarily foreseeable, the general risk of a cliff’s edge was.”

At least three people have died in the last five years after falls from cliffs in Cameron Park.

In July 2008, the Waco City Council approved a contract with Austin Filter Systems, Inc. of Austin for $605,000 for the erection of fences made of iron bars, with cement pillars at wide intervals.

City officials said the fences are designed to keep park visitors safer without ruining the view from the park's three cliffs.