Lucier v. Impact Recreation, Ltd.

• Decision Date: 26 January 2005
• Docket Number: No. 2004-11-Appeal.,2004-11-Appeal.
• Citation: 864 A.2d 635
• Parties: Kerri LUCIER et al. v. IMPACT RECREATION, LTD., et al.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

864 A.2d 635

Kerri LUCIER et al. v. IMPACT RECREATION, LTD., et al.

No. 2004-11-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

January 26, 2005.

Kerry Morey, for Plaintiff.

Patricia A. Buckley, Providence, for Defendant.

Present: WILLIAMS, C.J., GOLDBERG, FLAHERTY, SUTTELL, and ROBINSON, JJ.

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

A young boy, two days shy of his thirteenth birthday, was seriously injured while skateboarding on a "quarter pipe"¹ at a commercial skate park in East Providence. His parents, Roland and Kerri Lucier (plaintiffs), filed this premises liability action against Impact Recreation, Ltd. (Impact), the business entity operating the skateboard facility; Kevin Robinson, one of its principals; and Eugene Voll, Impact's landlord, alleging (1) failure to maintain safe conditions, (2) failure by the landlord to ensure that the commercial tenant was not engaging in an activity that was inherently dangerous to the public at large, and (3) breach of duty by negligently permitting and maintaining dangerous conditions on the property. The plaintiffs also sued for loss of consortium.

Default was entered against Impact, but Voll answered and, after extensive discovery, filed a motion for summary judgment.² Finding that the commercial landlord owed no duty of care to the invitees of its lessee and that plaintiffs had failed to produce sufficient facts to demonstrate that skateboarding is an extremely dangerous activity, the motion justice granted summary judgment, from which plaintiffs now appeal. Because our de novo review supports the motion justice's conclusions, we affirm the judgment.

Facts and Travel

At the time of the injury, Impact leased an 8,500-square-foot portion of a 30,000-square-foot building from Voll. The lease between Impact and Voll restricted the use of the premises to a "[b]icycle, skateboarding and in line skating center, with retail sales incidental thereto." Impact was required to obtain Voll's approval for any change in use, and Voll could not unreasonably withhold such approval. Under the terms of the lease, Voll was required to maintain all exterior and structural portions of the building, while Impact was to maintain the interior part of the building, as well as the exterior areas of the property, such as the sidewalk, parking area, and driveways. Pursuant to paragraph 12 of the lease, "[a]ll alterations and improvements [were] subject to the Landlord's prior approval of plans and specifications and such reasonable conditions * * * as the Landlord deem[ed] reasonably appropriate." The lease further provided that Impact could install trade fixtures in the leased premises, and that these trade fixtures would, notwithstanding the manner of their installation, remain the property of Impact. The lease also obligated Impact to maintain a general liability policy through the Boy Scouts of America, and to require that all participants execute a waiver and release of liability as a prerequisite to participating in activities on the premises.

On the evening of March 16, 2001, Timothy Lucier's father brought him and several of his friends to Impact to skateboard to celebrate Timothy's birthday. At the skate park, Timothy paid for himself and his friends and his father signed the waiver. After arriving at the facility, Timothy donned a helmet, kneepads, and elbow pads, and then he and his friends rode back and forth on a "half pipe" waiting for the crowd of people to leave.³ After about an hour, Timothy and his friends skated to the "quarter pipe." Timothy climbed on top of the quarter pipe and, as he pushed forward to go down the ramp, the front wheel of his skateboard caught inside a "nub" or "little tiny hole" in the ramp, causing the tail of his skateboard to swing around in a clockwise direction. At his deposition, Timothy said that in an attempt to execute a safety maneuver to avoid falling on his face, he twisted off the skateboard and fell on his right leg causing it to snap. Timothy testified that after he fell he looked back at the ramp and saw that there was a split in the wood covering the ramp. Timothy's fall resulted in a spiral fracture in a growth plate of his right leg.

Standard of Review

This Court reviews the granting of a motion for summary judgment on a de novo basis. DiBattista v. State, 808 A.2d 1081, 1085 (R.I.2002). "[W]e will affirm a summary judgment if, after reviewing the admissible evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, we conclude that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Id. (citing Woodland Manor III Associates v. Keeney, 713 A.2d 806, 810 (R.I.1998)). Furthermore, "a litigant opposing a motion for summary judgment has the burden of proving by competent evidence the existence of a disputed issue of material fact and cannot rest upon mere allegations or denials in the pleadings, mere conclusions or mere legal opinions." D'Allesandro v. Tarro, 842 A.2d 1063, 1065 (R.I.2004) (quoting Santucci v. Citizens Bank of Rhode Island, 799 A.2d 254, 257 (R.I.2002)).

Analysis

It is a fundamental principle of law that "[a] defendant cannot be liable under a negligence theory unless the defendant owes a duty to the plaintiff." Santucci, 799 A.2d at 256 (quoting Ferreira v. Strack, 636 A.2d 682, 685 (R.I.1994)). This duty of care element of negligence "is an obligation imposed by the law upon a person. It requires that person to conform his or her actions to a particular standard." Kuzniar v. Keach, 709 A.2d 1050, 1055 (R.I.1998). Whether a duty exists in a particular case is a question of law for the trial or motion justice. Id. "In determining whether such a duty exists, the court considers `all relevant factors, including the relationship of the parties, the scope and burden of the obligation to be imposed upon the defendant, public policy considerations and notions of fairness.'" Mallette v. Children's Friend and Service, 661 A.2d 67, 70 (R.I.1995) (quoting Kenney Manufacturing Co. v. Starkweather & Shepley, Inc., 643 A.2d 203, 206 (R.I.1994)). "If no such duty exists, then the trier of fact has nothing to consider and a motion for summary judgment must be granted." Banks v. Bowen's Landing Corp., 522 A.2d 1222, 1225 (R.I.1987).

Premises Liability

Counts 1 and 3 of plaintiffs' second amended complaint are both predicated on Voll's (and the other defendants') alleged failure to safely maintain the premises. Count 1 specifically avers that defendants breached their duty "to adequately and safely maintain the Property," and count 3 alleges that defendants breached their duty "to maintain the Property in a reasonably safe condition for invitees * * * by negligently permitting and maintaining dangerous conditions on the Property including, but not limited to, a hole in one of the skateboarding ramps * * *." We agree with the motion justice's characterization that both of these counts are essentially the same, as both sound in premises liability.

"Premises liability" is defined in Black's Law Dictionary 1199 (7th ed. 1999) as "[a] landowner's or landholder's tort liability for conditions or activities on the premises." Premises liability law in Rhode Island "imposes an affirmative duty upon owners and possessors of property: `to exercise reasonable care for the safety of persons reasonably expected to be on the premises * * * include[ing] an obligation to protect against the risks of a dangerous condition existing on the premises, provided the landowner knows of, or by the exercise of reasonable care would have discovered, the dangerous condition.'" Kurczy v. St. Joseph Veterans Association, Inc., 820 A.2d 929, 935 (R.I.2003) (quoting Tancrelle v. Friendly Ice Cream Corp., 756 A.2d 744, 752 (R.I.2000)).

In the case before us, however, plaintiffs' claims against Voll are predicated on a breach of his alleged duties as a landlord. "At common law a landlord was not liable for injuries sustained by a tenant or a guest on the leased premises unless the injuries resulted either from a latent defect known to the landlord but not to the tenant or from the landlord's breach of a covenant to repair in the lease." Errico v. LaMountain, 713 A.2d 791, 793 (R.I.1998) (citing Ward v. Watson, 524 A.2d 1108, 1109 (R.I.1987); Coppotelli v. Brewer Yacht Yard at Cowesett, Inc., 636 A.2d 1326, 1327 (R.I.1994); McGuire v. Folly Landing Restaurant, Inc., 636 A.2d 1325, 1326 (R.I.1994); Munzi v. Kennedy, 538 A.2d 1015, 1016 (R.I.1988)). Although this common-law rule no longer applies to residential leases,⁴ the lease in question clearly is commercial; and, concerning nonresidential property, the general rule in Rhode Island remains that a landlord is not liable for injuries that the guest of a tenant suffers on the leased premises, unless the injury results from the landlord's breach of a covenant to repair in the lease, or from a latent defect known to the landlord but not known to the tenant or guest, or because the landlord subsequently has assumed the duty to repair. See East Coast Collision & Restoration, Inc. v. Allyn, 742 A.2d 273, 276 (R.I.1999) ("absent an explicit covenant to the contrary, the lessor of nonresidential space has no duty to repair or maintain that portion of the premises leased to the lessee"); Coppotelli, 636 A.2d at 1327 ("a landlord * * * is not liable for injuries sustained by a tenant or a guest * * * on the tenant's leased premises unless the injuries result from a latent defect known to the landlord but not to the tenant or from the landlord's breach of a covenant to repair"); Izen v. Winoker, 589 A.2d 824, 828 (R.I.1991) ("one who assumes a duty to perform an act must do so with reasonable care whether or not that person had an obligation to perform the act or repairs prior to assuming the duty").

Here, we conclude that plaintiffs have not shown any of the exceptions to the general rule that a commercial landlord is not liable for injury to third persons caused by the...