Casby v. Flint

Decision Date25 February 1988
Docket NumberNo. 70143,70143
Citation520 So.2d 281,13 Fla. L. Weekly 159
Parties13 Fla. L. Weekly 159 Marilyn CASBY, Petitioner, v. Warren Douglas FLINT and Rita Flint, his wife, Respondents.
CourtFlorida Supreme Court

Sharon L. Wolfe of Cooper, Wolfe & Bolotin, P.A., and Robert M. Sussman, Miami, for petitioner.

Jay B. Green, John B. Castle and Daniel L. Haverman of Jay B. Green, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for respondents.

SHAW, Justice.

We have for review Casby v. Flint, 501 So.2d 689 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987), in which the district court certified the following as a question of great public importance:

Where plaintiff slips, falls, and is injured because of a difference in floor levels, is an allegation that the difference was obscured either by (1) other social guests, or (2) by an excessive number of other social guests sufficient as an allegation of an inherently dangerous condition giving rise to a duty to warn, thus being distinguishable from Schoen v. Gilbert, 436 So.2d 75 (Fla.1983)?

501 So.2d at 690. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.

Casby filed a complaint alleging that the Flints negligently failed to warn of a change in floor levels obscured by an excessive number of people. The trial court granted the Flints' motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action for negligence. The district court affirmed relying on Schoen, in which we held that "[b]ecause a difference in floor levels is not an inherently dangerous condition, even in dim lighting, a homeowner has no duty to warn of such condition as a matter of law." 436 So.2d at 76.

We held in Hoag v. Moeller, 82 So.2d 138, 139 (Fla.1955), that "a difference in floor levels does not of itself constitute failure to use due care for the safety of a person invited to the premises and there is no duty to issue warning of such condition when it is obvious and not inherently dangerous." We reaffirmed this rule in Schoen and held that

[t]he amount of interior lighting cannot transform a difference in floor levels into an inherently dangerous condition. "That type of construction is common and no one entering a home can assume that the floors of all rooms in the same story have the same level, blindly travel on the presumption, disregard his own safety, stumble, fall, and recover."

436 So.2d at 76 (quoting Hoag, 82 So.2d at 139).

We recognize that accompanying circumstances may transform a change in floor levels into a dangerous situation, creating a duty to warn. In Kupperman v. Levine, 462 So.2d 90 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985), the district court correctly found that the owner had a duty to warn of the change in floor levels hidden by an unusual interior design which created an optical illusion of a level floor. In Northwest Florida Crippled Children's Association v. Harigel, 479 So.2d 831 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985), a display rack extended beyond a step down and distracted the customer's focus away from the step creating a negligent condition and giving rise to a duty to warn. Kupperman and Harigel each involved an uncommon design or mode of construction creating a hidden danger which a prudent invitee would not anticipate. In contrast, it is common knowledge that a room obscured by dim lighting, as in Schoen, or overcrowding, as in the...

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38 cases
  • Ugaz v. American Airlines, Inc.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida
    • 4 de setembro de 2008
    ...has even ruled that multiple floor levels in an overcrowded room does not constitute an inherently dangerous condition. Casby v. Flint, 520 So.2d 281, 282 (Fla.1988) ("They are so commonplace that the possibility of their existence is known to all."). Further, the court ruled that warning o......
  • Marriott International, Inc. v. Perez-Melendez
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • 25 de julho de 2003
    ...Stores, Inc. v. Ferguson, 556 So.2d 1207 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990). Marriott also cites several cases from other courts: Casby v. Flint, 520 So.2d 281 (Fla.1988); Schoen v. Gilbert, 436 So.2d 75 (Fla.1983); Hoag v. Moeller, 82 So.2d 138 (Fla.1955); Aventura Mall Venture v. Olson, 561 So.2d 319 (F......
  • Koutoufaris v. Dick
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Delaware
    • 26 de novembro de 1991
    ...& Casualty Co., Ct.App., 105 Wis.2d 710, 314 N.W.2d 914 (1981). Two jurisdictions reach a contrary result. See, e.g., Casby v. Flint, Fla.Supr., 520 So.2d 281 (1988); Kronen v. Richter, 211 Mont. 208, 683 P.2d 1315 Plaintiff argues that her knowledge of the risk or danger in the parking lot......
  • Eaton v. McLain
    • United States
    • Tennessee Supreme Court
    • 31 de outubro de 1994
    ...system was often difficult, at least the appellate court had some standard by which to judge the jury's actions.16 See also Casby v. Flint, 520 So.2d 281 (Fla.1988) (multiple floor levels in dimly lit room not inherently dangerous because levels are so commonplace that the possibility of th......
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