Opinion ID: 2395822
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Case Travel Facts

Text: On January 9, 1991, at approximately 10 a.m., the plaintiff brought her automobile to the defendant's place of business for repair. She parked it at the front of the shop leading to the repair bays and was told that she could return for it later in the day. At that time, and throughout the whole day into the evening, the weather consisted of a mixture of snow and freezing rain. When the plaintiff returned at approximately 4:00 p.m. to pay for the repairs and to retrieve her automobile, it was nowhere to be seen. She was informed that the car had been repaired and had been placed behind the defendant's business premises some one hundred feet distant. After paying for the repair charges, she was handed the keys to her automobile and told to go and get the vehicle. At the same time, Michael Wirkerman, one of the defendant's employees, told her to be careful in walking to the rear of the building because of the icy conditions. The plaintiff safely managed the long walk along the side of the defendant's building, but upon reaching the rear area, she slipped and fell on rutted ice and was injured. She later filed this civil action for damages in the Superior Court. The plaintiff's case was reached for trial before a jury. Following the presentation of her case in chief, the defendant moved for judgment as a matter of law. The trial justice, relying upon our holding in Fuller v. The Housing Authority of Providence, 108 R.I. 770, 279 A.2d 438 (1971), concluded that the defendant business invitor owed no duty to the plaintiff business invitee to remove snow, or ice or to sand or salt any icy areas on its premises during the ongoing storm, but could wait a reasonable time after the storm had ceased before having any duty to do so. The plaintiff's appeal followed. In this appeal, the plaintiff contends that the defendant, by requiring her to walk some one hundred feet over unfamiliar icy terrain to retrieve her automobile, served to exacerbate the normal risk that she reasonably expected to encounter had her automobile been placed in a convenient and accessible place. She asserts that the defendant, by forcing her to walk that extended distance under dangerous icy conditions, created an unusual circumstance. That unusual circumstance, she claims, served to revive the defendant's hitherto postponed duty under Fuller and required the defendant to take some affirmative action to alleviate the increased risk that it had created in addition to and apart from the ongoing storm.