Court Opinion

ID: 9794167
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:00:43.101695+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:12:36.427575
License: Public Domain

WARREN, P. J.,
dissenting.
In this negligence action, plaintiff appeals from a directed verdict. Plaintiff was injured at defendant’s residence while fleeing from defendant’s dog, which was rushing at her. Later, she filed this action, alleging that when she entered defendant’s premises, she was a business invitee, and that defendant breached the duty of care owed to her.1 At the close of plaintiffs case-in-chief, the trial court granted defendant’s motion for directed verdict, concluding that the evidence was insufficient to prove that plaintiff was an invitee and that defendant did not breach any duty of care owed to plaintiff, if she was a licensee.
The majority correctly sets forth the standard of review in an appeal from a judgment based on a directed verdict. Unfortunately, it does not properly apply that standard.
The evidence is that defendant purchased an insurance policy from the company for which plaintiff worked. The policy provides that the insurer will pay part of defendant’s hospital expenses if he is injured ‘ ‘ [w]hile at home, at work, at play, or in any activity whatsoever.” The policy also provides that it is a lifetime, noncancelable policy and that “[y]our agent will call on you each 6 months unless you are on another mode of renewal.” Plaintiff or her agent had renewed the policy in a face-to-face meeting with defendant every six months for five years.
The majority agrees that plaintiff had an implied invitation to enter defendant’s business to renew the policy. As the majority points out, a business invitee is one who is invited to enter land for a purpose connected with the business dealings of the possessor of the land. The policy covered plaintiff for injuries occurring at home. Given the policy’s scope of coverage, its language about the agent calling on the insured every six months for renewal, and the parties’ history of face-to-face meetings, there is, at least, a permissible *153inference that defendant impliedly invited plaintiff to his residence for a business purpose: to renew a policy that protected him in the event that he suffered an injury at home. Because there is evidence to support a finding that plaintiff was a business invitee, the trial court erred in directing a verdict for defendant.
Accordingly, I dissent.

 An occupier of land has a duty to an invitee to make the premises reasonably safe for the invitee’s use for the purpose of the invitation. Mickel v. Haines Enterprises, Inc., 240 Or 369, 371, 400 P2d 518 (1965).