Case Name: PRESSLEY v. BRUCE POST VFW MEMORIAL HOME, INC
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1990-10-15
Citations: 185 Mich. App. 709
Docket Number: Docket No. 108449
Parties: PRESSLEY v BRUCE POST VFW MEMORIAL HOME, INC
Judges: Before: Shepherd, P.J., and Sawyer and McDonald, JJ.
Reporter: Michigan appeals reports; cases decided in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Volume: 185
Pages: 709–713

Head Matter:
PRESSLEY v BRUCE POST VFW MEMORIAL HOME, INC
Docket No. 108449.
Submitted July 18, 1990, at Detroit.
Decided October 15, 1990.
Leave to appeal applied for.
Otis Pressley, while fishing from a seawall maintained by Bruce Post V.F.W. Memorial Home, Inc., and Corp. Walter F. Bruce Post 1146 Veterans of the Foreign Wars of the United States, fell from the seawall and injured himself after tripping on a metal spike protruding from the seawall. Pressley brought a premises liability action in Macomb Circuit Court against the two entities which maintained the seawall and allowed him to fish from the seawall on the day of the accident and for a period prior to the accident. At trial before a jury, defendants moved for a directed verdict, arguing that because the metal spike was an open and obvious danger they owed no duty to plaintiff. The trial court, Frederick D. Balkwill, J., denied the motion. The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff, assessing damages at $10,000, but reducing the award to $5,000, finding plaintiff to have been fifty percent comparatively negligent. Defendants appealed.
The Court of Appeals held:
An owner or possessor of land cannot be absolved of liability to an invitee or licensee for injury caused by a dangerous condition on the land merely on the basis that the dangerous condition was known or obvious to the invitee or licensee at the time of injury.
Affirmed.
Sawyer, J., dissented and would hold that no further duty is owed by a possessor of land to an invitee or licensee once the invitee or licensee is aware of the alleged dangerous condition. Judge Sawyer would reverse and remand for entry of a judgment of no cause of action.
References
Am Jur 2d, Premises Liability §§ 156,166,180, 406.
Modern status of the rule absolving a possessor of land of liability to those coming thereon for harm caused by dangerous physical conditions of which the injured party knew and realized the risk. 35 ALR3d 230.
Negligence — Invitees — Licensees — Known or Obvious Dangers.
An owner or possessor of land cannot be absolved of liability to an invitee or licensee for injury caused by a dangerous condition on the land merely on the basis that the dangerous condition was known or obvious to the invitee or licensee at the time of injury.
Mancini, Schreuder, Kline & Conrad, P.C. (by Ellen G. Schreuder), for plaintiff.
Franklin, Bigler, Berry & Johnston, P.C. (by Steven C. Berry), for defendants.
Before: Shepherd, P.J., and Sawyer and McDonald, JJ.

Opinion:
Shepherd, P.J.
Defendants appeal from a judgment of the circuit court entered in favor of plaintiff following a jury trial in the amount of $5,000 on a premises liability claim. The jury had awarded $10,000 in damages but reduced it after it found plaintiff fifty percent negligent. We affirm.
Plaintiff was injured when he fell from a seawall maintained by defendants. Plaintiff apparently tripped on a metal spike protruding from the seawall. Plaintiff had used the seawall for fishing over a period of time with the knowledge and approval of defendants.
The danger in this case, the exposed metal spike, was open and obvious. This was established by plaintiff's admission that he was aware of the spike's existence. He had, in fact, previously tried without success to remove it.
We believe that this case is controlled by Riddle v McLouth Steel Products Corp, 182 Mich App 259; 451 NW2d 590 (1990). In Riddle this Court reasoned that, if the encounter with a known or obvious danger has the effect of excusing the landowner's duty, we would be back to the doctrine of contributory negligence as an absolute bar to recovery. We agree with Riddle.
Affirmed.
McDonald, J., concurred.