Opinion ID: 849195
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: What the Restatement says

Text: The applicable sections of the Restatement provide as follows: § 343. DANGEROUS CONDITIONS KNOWN TO OR DISCOVERABLE BY POSSESSOR A possessor of land is subject to liability for physical harm caused to his invitees by a condition on the land if, but only if, he (a) knows or by the exercise of reasonable care would discover the condition, and should realize that it involves an unreasonable risk of harm to such invitees, and (b) should expect that they will not discover or realize the danger, or will fail to protect themselves against it, and (c) fails to exercise reasonable care to protect them against the danger. § 343A. KNOWN OR OBVIOUS DANGERS (1) A possessor of land is not liable to his invitees for physical harm caused to them by any activity or condition on the land whose danger is known or obvious to them, unless the possessor should anticipate the harm despite such knowledge or obviousness. (2) In determining whether the possessor should anticipate harm from a known or obvious danger, the fact that the invitee is entitled to make use of public land, or of the facilities of a public utility, is a factor of importance indicating that the harm should be anticipated. I read § 343 as providing a standard of care to be applied in cases where there exists a dangerous condition on the premises that the possessor knows about or could reasonably discover. [3] If the possessor is charged with knowledge of the condition or the court finds that he could reasonably discover the condition, he can be liable if (1) he fails to exercise reasonable care to protect his invitees even though the possessor should realize that the condition poses an unreasonable risk of harm to an invitee, and (2) he should realize that an invitee will either fail to discover the condition, or fail to appreciate the danger of the condition if it is discovered, or fail to protect himself from the danger even if discovered or realized. More instructive is the text of comment (a) to § 343, which provides that This section should be read together with § 343A, which deals with the effect of the fact that the condition is known to the invitee, or is obvious to him.... In the interest of brevity the limitation is not repeated in this section. Comment (a) is helpful in two ways: it illustrates that hidden or unknown conditions can be distinguished from known or obvious conditions and that § 343A is a rule designed to limit liability, whereas § 343 is designed to allow for the imposition of liability. It is important to realize that the comments to § 343A begin by saying, The rule stated in this subsection applies to all persons who enter or remain on land in the capacity of invitees, as defined by § 332. Thus, though §§ 343 and 343A must be read together, I believe that § 343A needs to be read as its own rule, and not as an exception to § 343. The general rule provided by § 343A is that a possessor of land is not liable to his invitees for injuries caused by activities or conditions on the land whose danger is known or obvious. The second clause of subsection (1) of § 343A provides the exception to this rule: if the possessor of land should anticipate the harm to the invitee despite the invitee's knowledge or the condition's obviousness, the possessor will not be relieved of liability under the general open and obvious rule.