The Law

Fill Those Cracks by Ron Davis A walkway defect at an Ohio shopping center has now become a “hazard” that favors an injured customer in her negligence lawsuit. The shopping center is Hickory Ridge, located in the Akron area. And the walkway defect was apparently the cause of the customer’s injury. She had shopped at a Goodwill Industries store that is a tenant at Hickory Ridge and fell as she was leaving to go to her car. At the time of her fall, she was rolling a cart loaded with merchandise she had purchased at the Goodwill store. To get to the parking lot where her car was located required maneuvering the cart down a ramp. But at the bottom of the ramp, the cart struck a crack in the concrete, causing it to stop suddenly and tip to one side. As she clung to the cart to prevent it from falling over, however, both she and the cart tumbled to the ground. She suffered injuries from her fall. And she sued Goodwill Industries of Akron, Ohio; the shopping center’s owners; and the center’s management company. In that lawsuit, she alleged that negligence on the part of Goodwill and the owners and managers of Hickory Ridge had resulted in her fall. She said that they should have at least warned her of the “dangerous condition” of the ramp. Ohio law requires businesses to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition. But a business owner is under no duty to protect his or her invitees from dangers “which are known to such invitees or are so obvious and apparent that they may reasonably be expected to discover them and protect themselves.” The injured woman argued, however, that the ridge in the Goodwill store ramp was “invisible” to her from her angle. Moreover, she contended that her shopping cart obscured her view of the ramp in front of her and that the weight of the cart actually pulled her down the ramp. Countering her argument, Goodwill cited the “trivial defect doctrine.” That rule holds that minor defects encountered by customers “which are common and not unreasonably dangerous” are to be expected and do not create liability on the part of a property owner. An Ohio court ruled in favor of Goodwill and the center’s owners and managers, explaining that they did not have a duty to warn the woman about the condition of the ramp. She appealed that ruling. An Ohio appellate court reversed the lower-court ruling, stating, “We cannot conclude that the [ramp] defect was trivial. The customer was pushing a full shopping cart down the ramp into a parking lot. The cart obstructed her view of the ground, and its weight affected her ability to control it as it went down the incline. The crack was not readily observable from a distance. And she was entering a parking lot, where there was a potential distraction of vehicular traffic.” (Neura v. Goodwill, 2012 WL 1925403, Ohio App. 9 Dist. [2012]) Decision: May 2012 Published: June 2012