Fisher v. HBS Management, Inc., A95A2514
| Decision Date | 15 March 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. A95A2514,A95A2514 |
| Citation | 220 Ga.App. 752,469 S.E.2d 885 |
| Parties | FISHER v. HBS MANAGEMENT, INC. et al. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Roy S. Mullman, Teri D. Alpert, Atlanta, for appellant.
Chambers, Mabry, McClelland & Brooks, Robert M. Darroch, Michael E. Hardin, Atlanta, for appellees.
Fisher was injured when he slipped and fell in the common area parking lot at the condominium where he resided. He sued HBS Management, Inc., which managed the property, and the Dunwoody Plantation Homeowners Association, Inc. claiming they negligently failed to keep the parking lot in a safe condition. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants and Fisher appeals.
The trial court correctly granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants because there is no evidence they had any actual or constructive knowledge of the slippery condition which caused Fisher to slip and fall.
Fisher deposed that, the night before the accident, he heard a weather forecast that there was going to be an ice storm the next day. At approximately 7:45 a.m. the next morning, he went out on his back porch to check the conditions and saw "very little" ice on part of the porch. At about 11:15 a.m., Fisher went out his front door to check the weather conditions again. This time he testified that the walkway outside his front door leading to the parking lot looked wet. Not knowing whether the wet looking walkway might also be icy, he decided to walk on the grass alongside the walkway to the parking lot to check the conditions there. When he got to the curb at the parking lot area, he testified that the area "just looked wet, but it didn't look icy at all." He stepped off the curb, took one step into the parking lot, and slipped and fell. Although he never saw any ice and did not recall feeling any ice after he fell, Fisher testified that he must have slipped on ice because "[t]here was absolutely nothing there and I've never slipped like that before ... on anything wet or dry."
Assuming the slippery condition which caused Fisher to slip and fall was invisible ice, there is absolutely no evidence that the defendants had actual or constructive knowledge of the hazard. The only evidence of any visible ice was Fisher's testimony that he saw "very little" on his back porch earlier in the morning. As to the parking lot, there is no evidence that there was any accumulated or visible ice in the area. There is no evidence that anyone else slipped or fell on ice or any other slippery condition in the parking lot or elsewhere in the condominiums. There is no evidence the defendants received any reports of icy or slippery conditions in the parking lot or elsewhere at the condominiums. Although there is evidence the defendants knew icy conditions had been forecast, the mere forecast of ice was not sufficient to charge the defendants with actual or constructive knowledge of the slippery condition which caused Fisher's fall.
Moreover, if invisible ice caused Fisher's fall, it was naturally occurring ice not attributable to any affirmative action on the part of the defendants. Accordingly, this case is similar to Auerbach v. Padgett, 122 Ga.App. 79, 176 S.E.2d 193 (1970), McIntyre v. Corporate Property Investors, 160 Ga.App. 868, 288 S.E.2d 584 (1982), and Speaks v. Rouse Co. of Ga., 172 Ga.App. 9, 321 S.E.2d 774 (1984), where the plaintiffs claimed the defendant proprietors negligently failed to discover and remove naturally occurring but invisible ice on which they slipped and fell. In all of those cases, we found the defendant proprietors were entitled to summary judgment based on the rule that the true ground of liability is the proprietor's superior knowledge of the alleged hazard and that recovery is...
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