Opinion ID: 2056478
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Deviation from the Standard of Care

Text: In Rhode Island, a landowner has a duty to exercise reasonable care for the safety of persons reasonably expected to be on the premises, and that duty includes an obligation to protect against the risks of a dangerous condition existing on the premises, provided the landowner knows of, or by the exercise of reasonable care would have discovered, the dangerous condition. Tancrelle v. Friendly Ice Cream Corp., 756 A.2d 744, 752 (R.I.2000) (citing Cutroneo v. F.W. Woolworth Co., 112 R.I. 696, 698, 315 A.2d 56, 58 (1974)). If the landowner rents residential property to tenants, the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (the act), codified in G.L. 1956 chapter 18 of title 34, imposes a still higher standard of care. It states that [a] landlord shall:    [m]ake all repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition. Section 34-18-22(a)(2). The act supersede[s] any common-law rules relating to residential tenants and landlords in conflict with its provisions. Errico v. LaMountain, 713 A.2d 791, 794 (R.I.1998). Here, the Girons, although never explicitly pleading that their cause of action arose from the duty imposed upon landlords by the act, nonetheless effectively stated a claim that Bailey had violated the duty imposed by it. The trial justice adopted the standard of care created by the act and Jane never objected. For these reasons, we hold that the standard of care provided by the act, supplemented by common law, governs this case. That is, in addition to a landlord's statutory duty to make repairs and do whatever is necessary to maintain the premises in a fit and habitable condition, the landlord has an obligation to exercise reasonable care for the safety of those expected to be on the premises and to protect against dangerous conditions existing on the premises. See Tancrelle, 756 A.2d at 752 (summarizing landowners duty to those reasonably expected to be on the premises); Errico, 713 A.2d at 794 (determining that the act displaces only those common law rules in conflict with the act's provisions). In Errico, 713 A.2d at 792, we considered whether landlords breached their duty under the act to their tenant, Errico, when a second-floor wooden balcony railing collapsed after Errico leaned against it, precipitating her fall to the ground. This Court determined that the observable evidence of the railing's physical deterioration, in conjunction with defendants' admission that they had inspected the railing at various times before the accident occurred, supports the conclusion of the jury and the trial justice that the railing was structurally unsound when Errico fell and that defendants either knew of this condition or failed to inspect the railing properly to detect this structural problem, thereby breaching their statutory duty to Errico. Id. at 795. Similarly, in this case, Marshall testified that the railing through which Cayetano fell was loose or bent and Robin testified that she told Marshall about the damage to the middle railing. Also, there was evidence about the deterioration of the porch floor that caused Cayetano to trip and fall into the right railing, leading, ultimately, to his injuries. Jane had constructive notice of the deteriorating condition of the railing and the porch floor because Marshall, her agent, had actual notice of both. This evidence supports a conclusion that the porch railing constituted a dangerous condition, and that the landlord, Jane, failed to keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition as required by § 34-18-22(a)(2). As a result, she breached her duty of care to the Girons. Cf. Ramos v. Granajo, 822 A.2d 936, 938-39 (R.I.2003) (holding that tenant failed to establish that the landlord breached his duty because tenant offered no evidence that landlord failed to properly maintain second floor balcony or that the landlord was aware of tenant's use of deck to move furniture into the second floor or that such a practice was common).