The Law

Shortcut Ill-Advised by Ron Davis The choice to take a shortcut across a grassy area at a Georgia shopping center was perhaps ill-advised. Likewise, the lawsuit resulting from the injury suffered when taking that shortcut. At the time the woman who was making such choices was working at the shopping center, The Avenue of Peachtree City, located in the Atlanta area. And she was serving there as a manager of one of the tenants there, a home-furnishings store. While helping a customer of the store, she had to carry an unwieldy piece of furniture to the customer’s car. That piece was so large that it partially impeded her view of the ground in front of her. Then, as she made her way from the rear of the store to the car, she decided to take what she thought was a better route. That meant crossing a small, triangular grassy median that separated part of the sidewalk from the parking lot. But when she stepped onto the median, she lost her balance and fell, seriously injuring her left foot. She sued the owners of the shopping center as well as their managing firm. In that lawsuit, she claimed that she tripped because the grassy median dropped off below the level of the adjacent sidewalk. Moreover, she added, that drop-off was obscured by the height of the grass in the median. The injured woman later admitted, however, that she had previously traversed the grassy median, having assisted with unloading deliveries and having loaded other furniture for customers in back of the store. As for the incident in which she was injured, she said that she really didn’t need to cross the median to reach the trunk of the customer’s car. She added, though, that she believed that crossing the median was the shortest route to that car. In their defense, the shopping center’s owners and their managing firm pointed out that the property is inspected at least four times each month and that there was no record of any other person claiming that they fell while on the median. And the company that provided landscaping services for the center testified that all the grass on the property, including that on the median where the woman fell, is mowed, edged, weeded and inspected for debris on a weekly basis. The Court of Appeals of Georgia, in ruling in favor of the center’s owner and managing firm, explained, “[The injured woman] failed to present evidence that [the center’s owners and manager] had constructive knowledge that the grassy median posed a hazard…. Furthermore, it is incumbent upon [the injured woman] to use the degree of care necessary under the circumstances to avoid injury to herself. And the reasonable selection of a route of travel is a part of the invitee’s duty to exercise ordinary care for her own safety.” (Berni v. Cousins Properties, Inc., 2012 WL 2478154 [Ga.App.]) Decision: July 2012 Published: August 2012