Court Opinion

ID: 9742371
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:12:07.26969+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:31.910855
License: Public Domain

Sharpnack, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
I disagree with the majority's analysis of the foreseeability component of duty.
The parties agree that Martin's had a general duty to provide a reasonably safe business environment to its invitees, including the duty to maintain a safe and suitable means of ingress and egress. The disagreement in this case is over whether Martin's had a duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent a vehicle from invading its sidewalk. The majority holds that Martin's had no such duty because it was not foreseeable, as a matter of law, that a drunk driver might lose control of his vehicle and jump the 3-inch curb separating the parking lot from the sidewalk. I disagree.
Foreseeability is one of the three elements of duty identified by the Webb court, and duty is a question of law. A determination of foreseeability, however, requires a factual analysis. As the Webb court stated:
"In analyzing the foreseeability component of duty, we focus on whether the person actually harmed was a foreseeable victim and whether the type of harm actually inflicted was reasonably foreseeable.... Imposition of a duty is limited to those instances where a reasonably foreseeable victim is injured by a reasonably foreseeable harm. Thus, part of the inquiry into the existence of a duty is concerned with exactly the same factors as is the inquiry into proximate cause. [citation omitted] Both seek to find what consequences of the challenged conduct should have been foreseen by the actor who engaged in it. We examine what forces and human conduct should have appeared likely to come on the scene, and we weigh the dangers likely to flow from the challenged conduct in light of these forces and conduct."
Webb, 575 N.E.2d at 997. Such analysis entails examining a wide range of actual and hypothetical circumstances arising out of the challenged conduct, which in this case is Martin's failure to maintain an adequate barrier between the parking lot and the sidewalk. If in performing this analysis the court finds no genuine issue of material fact, then the foreseeability component of duty does not stand in the way of summary judgment. If specific facts relating to foreseeability are set forth showing that there is a genuine issue for trial, then summary judgment may not be granted. The Fawleys have met this burden in the affidavit of the engineer Lamar Ziegler. The majority disposes of Mr. Ziegler's affidavit by stating that "Ziegler's opinion embraces a legal question on which his expert opinion as an engineer is not helpful." I disagree. As noted above, the foreseeability analysis is factual in nature. Mr. Zeigler's opinion regarding the traffic patterns in the parking lot, the size and type of the curb, and the risks inherent in the design of Martin's parking lot is relevant to the court's analysis of "what consequences of the challenged conduct should have been foreseen" by Martin's and "what forces and human conduct should have appeared likely to come on the scene." Webb, supra.
The majority relies on the notion that occurrences of drivers losing control of their vehicles are so unusual or extraordinary as to be plainly unforeseeable, and quotes the Florida Court of Appeals in Schatz v. 7-Eleven, Inc. to the effect that such occurrences are not "incidents to ordinary operation of vehicles, and do not happen in the ordinary and normal course of events." Schatz, 128 So.2d at 904. I disagree. Evidence of society's vigilance against the prospect of drivers loging control of their vehicles is ubiquitous in the use of barriers, posts, curbs, gradation, and similar devices in places where vehicular and pedestrian traffic intersect. Mr. Ziegler's affidavit demonstrates that there exists a body of literature devoted to the design of parking lots and highways which deals with methods of preventing errant vehicles from invading sidewalks and other pedestrian areas. Paradoxically, the majority's citation of authority from several *16jurisdictions on the unforeseeability of runaway vehicles in parking lots lends cere-dence to the view that such incidents occur often enough to be foreseeable.
The Fawleys should have an opportunity to present further evidence as to the foreseeability of the occurrence which caused their injuries.
I would reverse.