Even Obvious Hazards Can Give Rise to Liability for Business Owners

If you regularly allow customers or business invitees to visit your facility, you should always be mindful of potential hazards that exist at your location.  Even when those hazards would appear to be obvious or even trivial, they can lead to liability for any business owner.

An example of such liability can be found in a recent case from the Ninth District Court of Appeals for Ohio in Medina County.  Neura v. Goodwill Indus., Case No. 11CA0052-M (May 29, 2012).  The plaintiff, Ms. Neura, had loaded up her shopping cart at the Goodwill Industries Store and was exiting the facility to return to her car.  When she rolled her cart down a ramp to the parking lot her cart struck a ridge in the concrete at the bottom of the ramp.  This caused her cart to abruptly stop and tip over.  Ms. Neura tried to catch the cart to prevent it from falling and fell herself.  Thereafter, Ms. Neura filed a civil suit against Goodwill Industries for her injuries.  She alleged that Goodwill had been negligent in maintaining the ramp and failing to warn its customers about the dangerous condition.  Goodwill Industries moved for summary judgment arguing that the defect was open and obvious and trivial.  The trial court granted the motion for summary judgment and Ms. Neura appealed that decision.  The Court of Appeals then reversed the judgment and sent the matter back for trial.

In reviewing the open and obvious defense, the Court of Appeals pointed out that while a shop keeper is under no duty to protect its customers from dangers that are known to the invitee or so obvious and apparent to the customer that they may reasonably be expected to discover and avoid the hazard, there may be situations where the customer could be distracted and in those situations liability can arise.  A customer is not required to constantly look downward under all circumstances when they do not have prior knowledge of a potential hazard.  For this reason, the courts are required to look at the totality of the circumstances to determine if a danger is open and obvious.

In this instance, Ms. Neura fell while she was pushing a shopping cart provided by Goodwill down a ramp connected to the parking lot.  It was undisputed that there was a crack where the ramp met the parking lot and it was undisputed that Ms. Neura was pushing a cart full of items in front of her.  Based upon these facts, the Court ruled that a genuine issue of fact existed as to whether the crack was readily observable to the reasonable customer leaving the Goodwill Industries Store.  Depending on the circumstances, the Court also found that a trivial defect in the sidewalk could turn into a much more serious hazard because of the inability of the customer to notice and avoid the hazard.  Because Mr. Neura was pushing a shopping cart, the small ridge in the pavement became a more serious problem than what would be encountered by other customers who are merely walking out of the store.

The Neura case provides another example of how business owners must be cognizant of any unusual conditions or circumstances that exist at their facility, especially when those defects exist in areas where customers will routinely travel.  Steps must always be taken to either eliminate these hazards or provide adequate warnings.