Louisville Personal Injury Attorney Andrew Alitowski Case Law Report:

Slip and Fall in Parking Lot Case.

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In January of 2010, the Kentucky Court of Appeals heard a case involving a woman who fell while walking back to her vehicle on ice outside the bank she had just visited.  (See Stapleton v. Citizens National Corporation, 2010 WL 323284 (Ky.App)).   In Stapleton, Ms. Stapleton slip and fell outside her bank.  On January 30, 2008, Ms. Stapleton and her mother drove to the bank.  That morning it was quite cold, around 30 degrees.  Id.  It had snowed and sleeted a few days the car to meet her mother from the other side and walked into the bank.  Id.  She then walked back to the car using the same route and as she stepped to get into her car, she slipped and fell directly under the open door.  Id.  A bank employee came out and took a report and took pictures of the scene.  Id.  During discovery, Ms. Stapleton’s mom indicated that she did not notice the ice before the accident but after she did see the icy spots.  Ms. Stapleton broke her coccyx bone.  Id.  Ms. Stapleton sued.  The defense filed a motion for summary judgment claiming that it did nothing wrong.  The trial court granted the motion stating that the bank would not be liable for Ms. Stapleton’s fall for failing to warn of a naturally occurring outdoor hazard unless it 1) did anything to make the natural hazard less obvious, or 2) did anything that otherwise increased the likelihood that the customer would fall.  Id.  

In an action alleging negligence, a plaintiff must prove duty, breach, causation, and damages.  (cites omitted).  Id.  Ms. Stapleton was a business invitee.  Id.  A business owner owes such an invitee a duty to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition and warn of latent dangers.  Id.  This case involved a naturally occurring outdoor hazard.  Id.  The general rule is that a business owner has not duty to protect invitees from injuries caused by “natural outdoor hazards which are as obvious to an invitee as to the owner of the premises.”  Id.  This is the open and obvious defense.  Id.  

During the depositions of many of the parties, it came out that the patch of ice was open and obvious and all could see it on the photographs.  Id.  Thus, unless there was an exception to the rule, the defendant had not duty and no liability in this case.  “An exception to this general rule is when the owner undertakes protective measures that heighten or conceal the nature of the naturally occurring condition, thus making it worse.”  Id.  In this case, there was no evidence that the bank attempted to clear the icy patches in the parking lot and thus did nothing to make the situation worse.  Id.   Accordingly, this Court agreed that the bank was not liable and properly dismissed in this case.