Case Name: Dolly A. MUNZI v. Ronald KENNEDY, et ux.
Court: Supreme Court of Rhode Island
Jurisdiction: Rhode Island
Decision Date: 1988-03-22
Citations: 538 A.2d 1015
Docket Number: No. 87-459-Appeal
Parties: Dolly A. MUNZI v. Ronald KENNEDY, et ux.
Judges: 
Reporter: West's Atlantic Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 538
Pages: 1015–1016

Head Matter:
Dolly A. MUNZI v. Ronald KENNEDY, et ux.
No. 87-459-Appeal.
Supreme Court of Rhode Island.
March 22, 1988.
Richard A. Boren, Weinstein & Boren, Howard I. Lipsey, Lipsey & Skolnick, Providence, for plaintiff.
John G. Hines, Richard L. Patz, Hines, Patz & Wolpert, Inc., Providence, for defendants.

Opinion:
OPINION
PER CURIAM.
On March 8, 1988 the plaintiff, through her counsel, appeared before this court to show cause why her appeal from the grant by a Superior Court justice of the defendants' motion for summary judgment should not be denied. The plaintiff was seeking damages for injuries she received when she fell down a flight of stairs which ran from the first to the second floor in a single-family residence that the defendants had rented to the plaintiffs son. The plaintiff faults the defendants for the absence of a handrail and inadequate lighting.
Recently in Ward v. Watson, 524 A.2d 1108, 1109 (R.I. 1987), we reiterated the "long-settled rule that in Rhode Island a landlord is not liable for injuries sustained by a tenant or guest on the tenant's premises, unless the injury results from a latent defect known to the landlord but not to the tenant, or from the landlord's breach of a covenant to repair." There is no dispute that the landlords never made any agreement relative to repairs, and it is obvious that the lack of a handrail and the alleged lighting conditions were patent, rather than latent, defects.
The plaintiffs' appeal is denied and dismissed. The judgment appealed from is affirmed.