Opinion ID: 1787959
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Specialized Standard of Care for Premises Liability Cases Involving Conditions on Premises

Text: In Heins v. Webster County, 250 Neb. 750, 552 N.W.2d 51 (1996), we abrogated the distinction between licensees and business invitees for premises liability cases. Before Heins, this court held that for a business invitee to recover from an owner or occupier for an injury caused by a condition on the owner or occupier's premises, it was not enough for the business invitee to show that his or her injuries were caused by the owner or occupier's failure to exercise the ordinary duty of reasonable care. Instead, we required the business invitee to prove that the owner or occupier had breached a specialized standard of care that included three additional elements. Specifically, we required the business invitee to prove: (1) the defendant created the condition, knew of the condition, or by the exercise of reasonable care would have discovered the condition; (2) the defendant should have realized the condition involved an unreasonable risk of harm to the business invitee; (3) the defendant should have expected that a business invitee such as the plaintiff either (a) would not discover or realize the danger or (b) would fail to protect himself or herself against the danger; (4) the defendant failed to use reasonable care to protect the business invitee against the danger; and (5) the condition was a proximate cause of damage to the business invitee. See, Derr v. Columbus Convention Ctr., 258 Neb. 537, 604 N.W.2d 414 (2000); Richardson v. Ames Avenue Corp., 247 Neb. 128, 525 N.W.2d 212 (1995). The language we used in Heins created some confusion whether, in addition to abrogating the distinction between business invitees and licensees, we had also eliminated the specialized standard of care for cases in which the plaintiff claimed an injury caused by a condition on the owner or occupier's premises. In Heins, we stated: Our holding does not mean that owners and occupiers of land are now insurers of their premises, nor do we intend for them to undergo burdens in maintaining such premises. We impose upon owners and occupiers only the duty to exercise reasonable care in the maintenance of their premises for the protection of lawful visitors. Among the factors to be considered in evaluating whether a landowner or occupier has exercised reasonable care for the protection of lawful visitors will be (1) the foreseeability or possibility of harm; (2) the purpose for which the entrant entered the premises; (3) the time, manner, and circumstances under which the entrant entered the premises; (4) the use to which the premises are put or are expected to be put; (5) the reasonableness of the inspection, repair, or warning; (6) the opportunity and ease of repair or correction or giving of the warning; and (7) the burden on the land occupier and/or community in terms of inconvenience or cost in providing adequate protection. Heins v. Webster County, 250 Neb. 750, 761, 552 N.W.2d 51, 57 (1996). In Herrera v. Fleming Cos., 10 Neb. App. 987, 641 N.W.2d 417 (2002), the Nebraska Court of Appeals construed the language in Heins as eliminating the specialized standard of care for cases in which a plaintiff claimed an injury caused by a condition on an owner or occupier's premises. According to the Court of Appeals, after Heins, a lawful visitor needed only to show that the owner or occupier failed to exercise reasonable care under all of the circumstances and that the failure to exercise reasonable care caused the lawful visitor injury. Whether the owner or occupier had exercised reasonable care was to be determined by evaluating the nonexhaustive list of factors set out in Heins. We reversed the Court of Appeals' Herrera decision, concluding that Heins had not abrogate[d] the elements necessary to establish liability on the part of a possessor of land for injury caused to a lawful visitor by a condition on the land. Herrera v. Fleming Cos., 265 Neb. 118, 122, 655 N.W.2d 378, 382 (2003). In other words, we reaffirmed our commitment to the specialized standard of care for the owner or occupier in cases when a lawful visitor claims that he or she was injured by a condition on the owner or occupier's premise. Thus, in such cases, the owner or occupier is subject to liability if the lawful visitor proves (1) the owner or occupier either created the condition, knew of the condition, or by the exercise of reasonable care would have discovered the condition; (2) the owner or occupier should have realized the condition involved an unreasonable risk of harm to the lawful visitor; (3) the owner or occupier should have expected that a lawful visitor such as the plaintiff either (a) would not discover or realize the danger or (b) would fail to protect himself or herself against the danger; (4) the owner or occupier failed to use reasonable care to protect the lawful visitor against the danger; and (5) the condition was a proximate cause of damage to the lawful visitor. Id. The several factors described in Heins regarding reasonable care are to be considered under subsection (4) above. Id.