Duff v. Bd. of Regents of the Univ. Sys. of Ga., A17A0438
Decision Date | 24 May 2017 |
Docket Number | A17A0438 |
Citation | 800 S.E.2d 640 |
Parties | DUFF v. BOARD OF REGENTS OF the UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA. |
Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Brian Scott Parker, Alpharetta, Dana J. Norman, Thomas Charles Blaska, Atlanta, for Appellant.
Christopher Michael Carr, Samuel S. Olens, Kathleen Sadler Turnipseed, Atlanta, Angela Ellen Cusimano, for Appellee.
In this slip-and-fall case, plaintiff Mollie Duff appeals from the grant of summary judgment to defendant Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Duff contends that the trial court erred by concluding that rainwater on the floor where she slipped was not, as a matter of law, a hazardous condition. For the reasons that follow, we reverse.
So viewed, the record shows that Duff was a student at Georgia Perimeter College. One morning, her father dropped her off at school at approximately 7:45 a.m.; it had not been raining, and the weather "was clear." After her first class ended, Duff went to her second class, U. S. history, in the same building from 10:00 to 11:15 a.m. Her classrooms did not have windows, so she was unable to see that it had begun raining outside at some point after she arrived. When her history class ended, Duff began her walk to her third class in another building. She first exited the history classroom, walked down the hall, covering the length of her classroom and making it half-way past the next classroom (a computer lab), when she slipped and fell on rainwater that had been brought in by other students entering the building to go to their classes. Duff did not see any water until she fell and noticed water on the floor.
Duff suffered injuries from her fall and sued the Board on a premises liability theory. The Board answered and, following discovery, moved for summary judgment. The trial court granted the motion on the ground that Duff failed to meet her threshold burden to show that the rainwater on the floor amounted to a hazardous condition, i.e. an unusual or unreasonable amount. Duff challenges this ruling on appeal.
In Robinson v. Kroger ,2 the Supreme Court of Georgia clarified and summarized Georgia premises liability law as follows:
With this legal background in mind, we turn to the facts of this case. The trial court relied on precedent stating that "[t]he risk of harm imposed by some accumulation of water on the floor ... during rainy days is not unusual or unreasonable in itself, but is one to which all who go out on a rainy day may be exposed and which all may expect or anticipate."5 But this concept has been expressly limited by the Supreme Court of Georgia: "[S]ince that concept is based on the common knowledge that the ground outside gets wet on rainy days, it cannot properly be applied to a portion of an interior space where an invitee has no reason to expect water to accumulate on the floor."6
Here, it is undisputed that Duff lacked any actual knowledge that it was raining and that she fell in an interior portion of the building while walking between classrooms. A building diagram shows that the closest entrance was more than three classrooms away from where she slipped and fell. These circumstances bring Duff's case outside the line of cases where our courts have held that invitees, as a matter of law, must be charged with the knowledge that rainwater will accumulate on the floor where they fell.7
Further, with respect to the amount of water that had accumulated, the record, when construed in favor of Duff as required on summary judgment,8 contains testimony that there was "standing water," that Duff "felt the water after [she] hit the floor," and that the water made her skirt, leg, and hands wet when she tried to get up. There is evidence that approximately 882 students had classes that were about to begin in Duff's building, and a professor who came to aid Duff testified that there was "a lot" of water on the hallway floor from students waiting to enter their classes, but the amount of water in the spot of the fall after Duff fell was comparable to taking a wet paper towel and wiping it across the floor. In granting summary judgment, the trial court relied on this testimony to conclude that there was no hazard presented by the water, but this ignores the conflicting testimony from Duff that there was "standing water." Any conflict in the evidence is properly resolved by a jury, not by a court,9 and viewed with the evidence that Duff's denim skirt, leg, and hands had become wet from contacting the floor where she fell, this evidence does not demand a finding that no hazard existed.
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