Court Opinion

ID: 9664793
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:29:57.916414+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:10.253103
License: Public Domain

LAMBERT, Justice,
dissenting.
At the time George Combs was injured, the Corbin Motor Lodge restaurant was open and doing a thriving business. As 1-75 was closed due to inclement weather, the restaurant was a natural refuge for travelers. In fact, when Combs entered, the restaurant was so crowded he could not get a seat. As he was leaving, Combs slipped and fell on an icy sidewalk in front of the restaurant.
In reliance on Standard Oil Company v. Manis, Ky., 433 S.W.2d 856 (1968), the majority has again held that the owner of business premises has no duty to attempt removal of accumulated ice and snow and no duty to warn business patrons of the danger. In so doing, we perpetuate a rule of law which has outlived its usefulness.
Since our decision in Standard Oil and the authority upon which it is premised, this nation had witnessed a proliferation of modern shopping centers, malls, restaurants, motor hotels, convenience stores, and service stations. Such establishments are frequently found near or easily accessible to interchanges on interstate highways. They provide the public with goods and services in a convenient, appealing, and presumably safe environment. Ordinarily, parking lots and sidewalks are well-lighted, equipped with drainage facilities, cleared of debris, and have traffic control signals. Convenience and safety have become principal factors in business competition and the public has developed a reliance on same. In such a business environment, and in view of expectations business has promoted, it defies logic to absolve the owner of the premises of any duty to attempt snow and ice removal or warn patrons of the hazard. See Ashcraft v. People’s Liberty Bank and Trust, Ky.App., 724 S.W.2d 228 (1987), Miller, J., concurring.
The law should require all persons to exercise ordinary care for the safety of all other persons who might forseeably be injured by their acts or omissions. This rule has been widely applied in our law and expressly adopted in a number of our decisions. Grayson Fraternal Order of Eagles v. Claywell, Ky., 736 S.W.2d 328 (1987); Gas Service Company v. City of London, Ky., 687 S.W.2d 144, 148 (1985); M & T Chemicals, Inc. v. Westrick, Ky., 525 S.W.2d 740 (1974); Greyhound Corp. v. White, Ky., 323 S.W.2d 578 (1959). In this case, however, the majority has made an exception and held that the landowner owes no duty. Thus, any further inquiry is foreclosed. If the “duty” barrier were removed, the trier of fact would be free to consider the issues which should govern liability, i.e. whether the defendant was negligent and if so, whether his negligence was a substantial factor in causing the injuries and damages. There can be no justification for automatically shielding a party from liability because of status without any inquiry into the care exercised by him.
In this case, Corbin Motor Lodge was a modern motel and restaurant located at an interchange on an interstate highway. On the occasion of Combs’ injury, the public was invited to enter and the restaurant was full of patrons in spite of, if not because of, the bad weather. Considering the availability of snow and ice removal equipment and the reasonable expectations of patrons entering the business premises, it is not unreasonable to require such a business establishment to exercise ordinary care for the safety of patrons on a sidewalk in front of the building. To hold that because the hazard was as obvious to Combs as it was to the restaurant management is not a sufficient reason to deny Combs an opportunity to prove negligence. The management had at its disposal the means to remedy or warn against the hazard. Combs did not. In 4 S. Speiser, C. Krause, and A. Gans, The American Law of Torts, *948§ 14:60, p. 53 (1987), this issue is discussed as follows:
The rule that the obviousness of the danger relieves the owner of premises from liability is no longer universally accepted. In accordance with the rule of the Restatement of Torts that a possessor of land is subject to liability to invitees which is caused by a condition on this land, if he should realize that the condition involves an unreasonable risk of harm to the invitees and should expect that they will not discover or realize the danger, it has been held that a cause of action can be maintained by an invitee for injuries resulting from a slip and fall occasioned by natural accumulations of ice and snow, — even though the condition was well known to the plaintiff. It has been held that well-known climatic conditions do not negate the possibility that the possessor of the premises should have anticipated harm to the business invitee, despite the latter’s personal knowledge of the dangerous snow and ice conditions or the general obviousness of such conditions.
In his discovery deposition, Combs forthrightly testified that the weather was “terrible” and that “it was slick all over. Everybody was walking carefully.” Based on this testimony, the case was disposed of by summary judgment. As. such, there was not a full development of the facts. We do now know, for instance, what the temperature was, and what effort was made to remove snow and ice from the premises. Likewise, we do not know whether snow was falling at the time of Combs’ injury, whether it had just fallen, or whether snow and ice had been permitted to remain on the sidewalk for some extended period of time. These and other factors would be probative of the extent of liability, if any, Corbin Motor Lodge should incur. Hilen v. Hays, Ky., 673 S.W.2d 713 (1984). Nevertheless, since the majority has held that Corbin Motor Lodge had no duty under these circumstances, a jury will never be permitted to hear all the evidence and decide the issues.
The majority acknowledges that in certain circumstances a need to change the law may be “compelling,” but otherwise states that “stability in the law is of sufficient importance to require that we not overturn established precedent which itself is based upon a reasonable premise.” I believe the rationale which formerly existed to justify the rule in Standard Oil has ceased to exist and that we should bring the law of Kentucky in touch with modern reality.
Accordingly, I dissent.
LEIBSON, J., joins in this dissent.