Court Opinion

ID: 9588469
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:34:46.03471+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:00:59.071731
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge.
We granted defendant’s application for interlocutory review of the trial court’s denial of its motion for summary judgment in this slip and fall case.
Plaintiff was injured one evening when, upon exiting defendant restaurant’s take-out door with her two stacked boxes and bag, she fell down a concrete step leading to the asphalt pavement. She had walked up the step when she entered the premises through the same door. She filed suit against defendant alleging negligence, contending that the step was inadequate, the outside lighting was insufficient, the exit area was overcrowded making it difficult to exit safely, the takeout boxes she was given were so large that it was difficult to see beyond them to safely exit, and defendant’s employees delayed in aiding *312her after the fall. The latter allegation was abandoned in the brief on appeal. Plaintiff also alleges a breach of contract claim for defendant’s failure to pay her medical expenses as promised by its assistant manager.
1. Negligence. As repeated and applied in White v. Fred F. French Mgt. Co., 177 Ga. App. 661-662 (340 SE2d 276) (1986), in order for plaintiff to recover, two elements must exist: “(1) fault on the part of the owner, and (2) ignorance of the danger on the part of the invitee, [Cit.] [Cit.] The basis of the proprietor’s liability is his superior knowledge, and if his invitee knows of the condition or hazard there is no duty on the part of the proprietor to warn him and there is no liability for resulting injury because the invitee has as much knowledge as the proprietor does and then by voluntarily acting in view of his knowledge, assumes the risks and dangers incident to the known condition. Under the conditions here set out, a person acting in the exercise of ordinary care for his own safety should have been aware that such a hazard to walking [down a step] . . . would be likely to exist, and should have accordingly exercised ordinary care to avoid it . . . Her means of knowledge being equal with that of [defendant], it follows that [she] has failed to show a right of recovery based upon the acts of negligence alleged. [Cit.] [Cit.]”
While the fact that plaintiff had entered the restaurant using the same step on which she was later injured upon exiting may not in and of itself be sufficient to prove equal knowledge of the danger, Robinson v. Western Intl. Hotels, 170 Ga. App. 812, 814 (318 SE2d 235) (1984), plaintiff here was at least as knowledgeable as defendant of the danger as well as of the conditions in which it existed. Assuming an outside step is a danger or hazard, plaintiff admitted noticing that it was dark out, both at the time of entering and exiting the restaurant, and that upon exiting, there was no bright light on outside. She was aware of the crowd assembled near the door and of the difficulty in “maneuvering.” She also stated that while inside the restaurant her eyes had adjusted to the bright light, but that when she “stepped out the take-out door, my eyes had not adjusted to the darkness outside,” yet she proceeded anyway. She further admitted that when she stepped out of the door, she could not see the step because she was carrying the boxes in front of her and did not look down. Her foot caught only halfway on the step and she fell.
“ * “Issues of negligence, including the related issues of assumption of risk, lack of ordinary care for one’s own safety, lack of ordinary care in avoiding the consequences of another’s negligence and comparative negligence, are ordinarily not susceptible of summary adjudication . . . but must be resolved by a trial in the ordinary manner.” (Cits.)’ [Cit.]” except where the facts are so plain and palpable that they demand a finding by the court as a matter of law. Rainey v. *313City of East Point, 173 Ga. App. 893, 895 (328 SE2d 567) (1985); Beck v. Blackerby, 156 Ga. App. 15 (274 SE2d 68) (1980).
We construe the evidence most strongly against defendant as movant and give the benefit of all reasonable doubts and favorable inferences to plaintiff as the party opposing the motion. Lorie v. Standard Oil Co., 175 Ga. App. 308 (333 SE2d 110) (1985). Yet the facts plainly and palpably show that plaintiff, having as much knowledge as the proprietor did of the step as a hazard, assumed the risks and dangers of walking down a step with her arms full and without looking down to guide her foot. Thus, even assuming the truth of her four specific allegations of negligence, she is thereby precluded from recovering in negligence as a matter of law. Westall v. M & M Supermarkets, 174 Ga. App. 155 (329 SE2d 237) (1985); Backer v. Pizza Inn, 162 Ga. App. 682 (292 SE2d 562) (1982). See also the recent slip and fall summary judgment cases of Garnett v. Mathison, 179 Ga. App. 242 (345 SE2d 919) (1986), and Mewborn v. Winn-Dixie Stores, 179 Ga. App. 284 (346 SE2d 95) (1986).
Accordingly, the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion for summary judgment as to the negligence claim.
2. Breach of Contract. Plaintiff alleges that defendant’s manager in the presence of other customers told her to seek hospital care and that defendant would pay the expenses. He gave her a paper with his name and the restaurant’s phone number on it. As a result of this promise, plaintiff argues, she sought medical treatment and incurred $2,952.51 in expenses which defendant refused to reimburse.
Appellant relies on cases decided on the basis of former Code § 20-302 which focused on the benefit to promisor, injury to promisee notion of consideration. From that base, appellant argues that there was no valid consideration for the promise.
The law in Georgia concerning consideration was substantially changed in 1981, and Code § 20-302 was stricken. Ga. L. 1981, p. 876. Substituted was a whole new section plus two additional sections; the three are now OCGA §§ 13-3-42 through 13-3-44. The first, OCGA § 13-3-42 was taken almost verbatim from Restatement, Contracts 2d, § 71. Old Code § 20-302 was not retained, and it was actually rather explicitly rejected by the adoption of most of Restatement, Contracts 2d, § 79. It is now OCGA § 13-3-43, which eliminates the benefit to promisor, injury to promisee concept of consideration if the requirement of consideration is otherwise met.
OCGA § 13-3-44 is a verbatim adoption of Restatement Contracts 2d, § 90, which is one of the provisions for contracts enforceable without consideration. This section, as the Restatement points out, “is often referred to in terms of ‘promissory estoppel.’ ” It is relied upon by appellee here.
The Supreme Court cited this code section, as well as cases pre*314ceding the codification of it, to make clear that the doctrine of promissory estoppel is recognized in Georgia. Insilco Corp. v. First Nat. Bank, 248 Ga. 322 (1) (283 SE2d 262) (1981).
Although the Restatement embraces promissory estoppel under the provisions for contracts enforceable without consideration, Georgia views it as a doctrine wherein consideration is supplied by the reliance of the promisee on the promise of another. See Loy’s Office Supplies v. Steelcase, Inc., 174 Ga. App. 701, 702 (331 SE2d 75) (1985).
With this in mind, we conclude that the trial court did not err in denying defendant’s motion for summary judgment on this claim. There is some evidence of plaintiffs reliance by the incurring of medical expenses. Whether the promise acted as a catalyst inducing her to incur these expenses, and whether such reliance was reasonable under the circumstances, are questions for the jury.
Defendant would argue that what the manager did and said was a mere unenforceable gratuity. Even if defendant wishes us to consider the matter in terms of the traditional benefit-to-promisor/loss-topromisee concepts, there was evidence of benefit to defendant in the form of good public relations engendered by the manager’s making the promise in the presence of other customers. As recognized in Collins v. Gwinnett Bank &c. Co., 149 Ga. App. 658 (255 SE2d 122) (1979), good name is a cognizable thing of value.

Judgment affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Deen, P. J., Birdsong, P. J., Sognier and Pope, JJ., concur. Banke, C. J., McMurray, P. J., Carley and Benham, JJ., concur in part and dissent in part.