Opinion ID: 1528391
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: social guests

Text: At the time of Tevin's tragic accident, Ms. Matthews and Tevin were social guests. The duty owed to a social guest is explained by this Court in Paquin v. McGinnis, 246 Md. 569, 229 A.2d 86 (1967). Judge Marbury wrote: A social guest who enters a premises at the express or implied invitation of the host is not an invitee in a legal sense even though he enters the premises upon the basis of the invitation. A social guest enters the premises of his host for his own benefit and convenience, and the hospitality the guest receives is bestowed gratuitously. The use of the premises is extended to him merely as a personal favor to him. As a sign of hospitality the host often treats the guest as `one of the family' to whom is offered the first serving or the most comfortable chair. The legal duty owed to a social guest by a host is to take the same care of the guest that the host takes of himself and other members of his family. Paquin, 246 Md. at 572, 229 A.2d at 88. He further quoted from the RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS ง 342, which the Court adopted. The Restatement (Second), Torts, Section 342, imposes liability upon a host for physical harm caused to guests by a condition on the premises if, but only if, (1) the host knows or has reason to know of the condition and should realize that it involves an unreasonable risk of harm to such guests, and should expect that they will not discover or realize the danger, and (2) the host fails to exercise reasonable care to make the condition safe, or to warn the guests of the condition and the risk involved, and (3) the guests do not know or have reason to know of the condition and the risk involved. Paquin, 246 Md. at 572, 229 A.2d at 88. Emphasizing the very limited duty, even to warn of dangers or defects, Judge Marbury pointed out that there is not even that duty where the host had no knowledge or means of knowledge of the danger or defect. Furthermore, if the condition should be obvious to the guest, the host need not warn him. Id. Ms. Matthews had more knowledge of this dog and its temperament than the landlord, and the landlord owed her no duty to warn her about the dog. Surely the majority is not suggesting that, when a tenant's social guest is invited inside of the leased dwelling, the landlord owes the social guest a greater duty than the tenant who extended the invitation. It would be unreasonable for many reasons to hold that the landlord owes a higher duty than the tenant to the tenant's social guests while they are in the leased residence. One primary reason is that the landlord could not seek indemnification from the tenant who created and controlled the dangerous condition in the leased dwelling, if the tenant does not owe the same duty to the injured social guest as the landlord. Perhaps the majority has the landlord's duty toward someone within the common areas confused with the landlord's duty to someone within the leased portion of the premises. The higher duty the landlord owes to all people in the common areas is based on the landlord's exclusive control over and exclusive duty to maintain the common areas, as well as the relationship between the common areas and the landlord's business of leasing the individual units. When a tenant and the tenant's guests are in the common areas, they are in effect business invitees of the landlord, but when the tenant and the tenant's guests go into an apartment rented by the tenant, they are no longer in an area maintained or controlled by the landlord. When different parts of a building, such as an office building or an apartment house, are leased to several tenants, the approaches and common passageways normally do not pass to the tenant, but remain in the possession and control of the landlord. The tenants are permitted to make use of them but do not occupy them, and the responsibility for their condition remains upon the lessor. His position is closely analogous to that of a possessor who permits visitors to enter for a purpose of his own; and those who come in the course of the expected use may be considered his invitees, as a good many courts have held. He is therefore under an affirmative obligation to exercise reasonable care to inspect and repair such parts of the premises for the protection of the lessee; tenant's family, his employees, his invitees, his guests, and others on the land in the right of the tenant, since their presence is a part of the normal use of the premises for which the lessor holds them open.