Opinion ID: 2134398
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Skinner's Status

Text: Given our determination that the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Act does not apply to the instant case, it becomes necessary to determine the duty the District owed to Skinner. We begin our analysis by noting that the accident in this case occurred before Heins v. Webster County, 250 Neb. 750, 552 N.W.2d 51 (1996), which abrogated the distinction between invitees and licensees. Because Heins was prospective in effect, it is necessary to determine whether Skinner was an invitee or a licensee at the time of the accident in question. The law places those who come upon the premises of another in three classes: Invitees are those who are expressly or impliedly invited, as a customer to a store; licensees are persons whose presence is not invited, but tolerated; trespassers are persons who are neither suffered nor invited to enter. Lindelow v. Peter Kiewit Sons', Inc., 174 Neb. 1, 115 N.W.2d 776 (1962). This case deals with the distinction between the former two classes. The District argues that the trial court was clearly wrong in finding that Skinner was an invitee and that, instead, she should have been considered a licensee. A licensee is a person who is privileged to enter or remain upon the premises of another by virtue of the possessor's express or implied consent, but who is not a business visitor. See, Derr v. Columbus Convention Ctr., 258 Neb. 537, 604 N.W.2d 414 (2000); McIntosh v. Omaha Public Schools, 249 Neb. 529, 544 N.W.2d 502 (1996). A licensee is on the premises of another for the licensee's own interest or gratification. Such person is exercising the privilege solely for that person's own convenience or benefit and does not stand in any contractual relation with the owner or occupant of the premises. Palmtag v. Gartner Constr. Co., 245 Neb. 405, 513 N.W.2d 495 (1994). An invitee, on the other hand, is a person who goes on the premises of another in answer to the express or implied invitation of the owner or occupant on the business of the owner or occupant or for their mutual advantage. See Derr v. Columbus Convention Ctr., supra . This court has used the economic benefit test for determining an entrant's status, whereby a business visitor or invitee is defined as one who is expressly or impliedly invited or permitted to enter or remain on the premises in the possession of another for a purpose directly or indirectly connected with the business of the possessor or with business dealings between them. Palmtag v. Gartner Constr. Co., supra . See, also, Restatement (Second) of Torts § 332(3) (1965). If the invitation relates to the business of the one who gives it, or is given for the mutual advantage of a business nature for both parties, the party receiving the invitation is an invitee. See Palmtag v. Gartner Constr. Co., supra . See, also, McIntosh v. Omaha Public Schools, supra . The economic benefit theory proceeds on the assumption that affirmative obligations are imposed on people only in return for some consideration or benefit. Any obligation to discover latent dangerous conditions of the premises is regarded as an affirmative one, and the consideration for imposing it is sought in the economic advantageactual or potentialof the plaintiff's visit to the occupier's own interest. 5 Fowler V. Harper et al., The Law of Torts § 27.12 (2d ed. 1986). An invitation to a business visitor need not be express, as an invitation is inferred where there is a common interest or mutual advantage. See, Palmtag v. Gartner Constr. Co., supra ; Lindelow v. Peter Kiewit Sons', Inc., 174 Neb. 1, 115 N.W.2d 776 (1962). An invitation, as a layperson might use the term in ordinary affairs of life, is not required for one to be an invitee as the term is used in law. See Lindelow v. Peter Kiewit Sons', Inc., supra . The District emphasizes that Skinner's subjective intent or purpose in visiting the school was to help her husband return the computer equipment so they both could leave town for a vacation the next day. The proper inquiry, however, is not whether Skinner intended for her visit to benefit the possessor of the premises, but simply whether the visit inures to their mutual advantage. See Restatement, supra, comment e. Business visitors include those who come onto the land for a purpose connected with their own business, so long as that purpose is connected with any purpose, business or otherwise, for which the possessor uses the land. Id. In fact, it is not necessary that the visitor shall be upon the land for the purposes of the possessor's business at all, if the visit is for the convenience or arises out of the necessities of others who are themselves upon the land for such a purpose. See id., comment g. These principles are illustrated in decisions made by appellate courts in other jurisdictions. For instance, in Poulin v. Colby College, 402 A.2d 846 (Me.1979), the plaintiff was assisting an employee of a college into the dormitory where the employee worked, when the plaintiff slipped and fell on an icy road. The defendant college argued that the plaintiff was not a business invitee, because he was gratuitously aiding the employee and was not on the campus for any business purpose of his own. The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, however, affirmed the trial court's determination that the plaintiff was an invitee. Id. The court stated that [b]y his conduct, plaintiff enabled one of defendant's employees to reach her place of employment, thereby conferring, at least to some degree, an economic benefit upon defendant. An invitation for plaintiff to enter upon defendant's premises is reasonably implied from such circumstances. Id. at 849. Similarly, in Harter v. Ozark-Kenworth, Inc., 904 S.W.2d 317 (Mo.App.1995), the plaintiff was injured while helping his father, an employee of a truck manufacturer, in unloading truck cabs that were being delivered for purchase and resale by the father's employer. The Missouri Court of Appeals stated: While there was evidence in the record that [the plaintiff's] participation in the delivery of truck cabs was solely for his own purposes, insofar as he was motivated by his desire to be helpful to a parent who was supporting him, there was also evidence in the record that his presence at the [employer's premises] was of benefit to [the employer], since he was assisting in the delivery and undecking of truck cabs, which was a prerequisite to their resale by [the employer]. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to [the plaintiff], there was sufficient evidence in the record from which a jury could find that [the plaintiff's] presence on the premises was connected with the business dealings of the owner in a way that was for the mutual benefit of himself and the owner and that [the plaintiff] was thus a business invitee.... Id. at 321 n. 1. See, also, e.g., Dorton v. Francisco, 309 Ark. 472, 833 S.W.2d 362 (1992) (sufficient evidence for jury to find plaintiff was invitee where plaintiff was, for his own purposes, helping friend perform friend's duties as farmhand); Newton v. Pennsylvania Iron & Coal, Inc., 85 Ohio App.3d 353, 619 N.E.2d 1081 (1993) (evidence supported finding that wife was invitee when injured while picking up husband's paycheck); Mullins et al. v. Easton et al., 176 Ind.App. 590, 376 N.E.2d 1178 (1978) (voluntary helper of repairman was business invitee when injured carrying roto rooter machine into defendant's residence). In other words, in order to determine if a business invitation is implied, the inquiry is not a subjective assessment of why the visitor chose to visit the premises in a particular instance. Indeed, such a standard would make analysis of status distinctions even more logically convoluted than it already is. Instead, the initial question is simply whether the visit is objectively related to the business of the possessor of the premises, such that the visit is to the mutual advantage of the possessor and the plaintiff, and an invitation to the plaintiff is implied. Thus, in the instant case, it does not matter whether the evidence shows that the District expressly invited Skinner to visit, because an invitation is implied so long as the visit was to the mutual advantage of Skinner and the District. Similarly, Skinner's intent in visiting is irrelevant, because the advantage of the visit to her need not be the same as the advantage to the District. The record in this case supports the trial court's finding that Skinner's visit to the school was to the mutual advantage of Skinner and the District. Both Skinner and her husband testified that the purpose of their visit to the school was to return a computer, printer, and supplies that Skinner's husband had taken to a band director's meeting. Skinner's husband specifically testified that returning the property was a part of his duties as an educator. While Skinner agreed that she was assisting her husband for her own convenience and that she had not been asked by the District to assist, both Skinner and her husband testified that Skinner's assistance in returning school property was in furtherance of the interests of the District. Furthermore, the superintendent of the school testified that a teacher in the school building over the summer, helping a coemployee return school property, would be furthering the educational process. In short, the record contains substantial evidence to support the trial court's finding that Skinner's visit to the school was to the mutual advantage of Skinner and the District and, thus, that a business invitation was implied. Skinner was not within the scope of her own employment for workers' compensation purposes, as she was assisting her husband with his job rather than performing her own duties, but this assistance was nonetheless of mutual advantage to Skinner and the District, and this advantage implies an invitation under the economic benefit test. Giving Skinner all reasonable inferences from the evidence, as required by our standard of review, we cannot say that the trial court was clearly wrong in finding that Skinner had the status of an invitee when injured.