Court Opinion

ID: 9706448
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:43:46.123989+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:22.820592
License: Public Domain

Mahady, J.
dissenting. I do not agree with the majority that the trial court properly directed a verdict in favor of defendant in this case. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
“If there was any evidence reasonably supporting plaintiffs claim, the case should have gone to the jury and a directed verdict [is] improper.” Senesac v. Associates in Obstetrics & Gynecology, 141 Vt. 310, 312, 449 A.2d 900, 902 (1982). Also, plaintiff is to be given the benefit of all reasonable doubts and inferences. *241Cf. Berlin Development Associates v. Department of Social Welfare, 142 Vt. 107, 111, 453 A.2d 397, 399 (1982) (when deciding a summary judgment motion, inferences and doubts as to the facts must be decided in favor of the nonmoving party).
The owner or occupier of land owes a business invitee the duty to maintain the premises in a safe condition, suitable for use by the invitee. Garafano v. Neshobe Beach Club, Inc., 126 Vt. 566, 570, 238 A.2d 70, 74 (1967). This duty requires the business owner or operator “to use reasonable care to keep its premises in a safe and suitable condition so that [the invitee will] not be unnecessarily or unreasonably exposed to danger.” Id. at 572, 238 A.2d at 75. “[T]he standard of conduct needed to discharge a duty of care in any given situation [is] measured in terms of the avoidance of reasonably foreseeable risks to the person to whom such duty is owed.” Green v. Sherburne Corp., 137 Vt. 310, 312, 403 A.2d 278, 280 (1979).
The factual issue in this case, therefore, is whether the presence of the rocks at the bottom of an unimproved path leading down a hill from the base lodge to the parking area constituted a reasonably foreseeable risk to persons using the path.
“The question then is what the reasonable person would have done under the circumstances. Under our system of procedure, this question is to be determined in all doubtful cases by the jury, because the public insists that its conduct be judged in part by the man in the street rather than by lawyers . . . . ” Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts § 37, at 237 (5th ed. 1984). I am not prepared to rule as a matter of law that the defendant here merely “failfed] to take precautions which no reasonable person would consider necessary under the circumstances.” Id. at 238. Such a determination is for the jury. See, e.g., Green v. Sherburne Corp., 137 Vt. 310, 402 A.2d 278 (whether ski area should have padded utility poles located on ski trails submitted to jury). I believe that a directed verdict was improper, and I would have reversed and remanded this case to have the question the trial judge decided determined instead by a jury.