Allison v. Wnek

• Decision Date: 15 November 1967
• Citation: 12 Ohio App.2d 97,231 N.E.2d 332
• Parties: , 41 O.O.2d 177 ALLISON, Appellant, v. WNEK, Appellee.
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals

Page 97

12 Ohio App.2d 97

231 N.E.2d 332, 41 O.O.2d 177

ALLISON, Appellant, v. WNEK, Appellee.

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Ninth District, Lorain County.

Nov. 15, 1967.

Syllabus by the Court

Generally, in the absence of a lawful requirement, the owner or occupant of property owes no duty to pedestrians to keep the sidewalk in front of it free from ice and snow coming thereon from natural causes, or by the acts of others ho may, in coming on the driveway portion of the sidewalk in motor vehicles, deposit snow and slush on the driveway, which later freezes and becomes slippery.

Frank J. Janik, Amherst, for appellant.

Miraldi & Colella, Lorain, for appellee.

HUNSICKER, Judge.

In this appeal on questions of law, George Allison, the appellant, says that the trial court failed to properly instruct the jury in his action against Theodore Wnek, the owner of a gasoline service station. George Allison, during the time the service station was closed, walked along the sidewalk in front of the station and slipped and fell on the ice and snow that had been brought upon the sidewalk by automobiles using the closed premises of Wnek to park or turn around.

The errors assigned are:

1. 'The trial court erred in its instructions to the jury in not charging as to liability based on accumulations of ice and snow, natural as distinguished from artificial.'

2. 'The trial court erred in failure to instruct the jury as to constructive notice of defendant and effect upon his liability based on doctrine of abutting owners liability for special use of sidewalk.'

3. 'The trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on the doctrine of foreseeability of natural and probable consequences and the creation thereby of a condition constituting a nuisance.'

4. 'The trial court failed to instruct the jury on the collateral source of income rule.'

The evidence is not contradicted that Wnek, before he closed his service station and went to his home, cleaned the sidewalk in question of all ice, snow and slush, and put salt on it. He also had signs posted prohibiting parking on the service station property, although he knew that people paid no attention to the signs and parked on his land.

Whether the snow and slush brought onto the sidewalk entrance to Wnek's property was brought by these people who were, in effect, trespassers, or by those who used the driveway entrance to turn their vehicles and go in another direction, is mere speculation. The record is clear that the sidewalk was clean at the time the service station was closed.

Mr. Allison said that he noticed the snow and slush and realized it was frozen in some places at the time he walked past the service station two...