Court Opinion

ID: 9658589
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:05:43.86282+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:56.862776
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Justice,
specially concurring.
It appears to me that in some instances, dependent upon the facts, a tenant owes a duty to its customers regarding safe access to the premises, notwithstanding the tenant has “no control” over the common areas. I do not understand the majority opinion to necessarily foreclose that obligation. For example, a tenant should not be excused from liability for an unusually dangerous access of long standing simply by having informed a landlord who took no steps to alleviate the danger. As the trial court here instructed, the tenant also has a duty to warn its customers of the defect. I suggest that under some circumstances the duty should go even further, i.e., a tenant knowing of a long-standing peril of which the tenant has informed the landlord, should not be permitted to escape liability if the tenant continues to invite customers to the premises even though a warning is given. In those truly perilous situations of long standing, the tenant ought to cease doing business on those premises or, with the landlord, bear the liability for damage to those customers who are injured on the premises.
*389In this instance, I do not believe the situation was of such a perilous nature. There was no unusual peril present. Only a misuse of the elevator created the danger. Under those circumstances I believe the instruction given by the trial judge as to the duty to repair, inspect and warn was adequate.
GIERKE, J., concurs.