Motel 6 G.P., Inc. v. Lopez

• Decision Date: 28 June 1996
• Docket Number: No. 96-0275,96-0275
• Citation: 929 S.W.2d 1
• Parties: 39 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 880 MOTEL 6 G.P., INC., and Motel 6 Operating L.P., a Delaware Limited Partnership, d/b/a Motel 6, Petitioners, v. Maria Ramona LOPEZ, Respondent.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 1

929 S.W.2d 1

39 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 880

MOTEL 6 G.P., INC., and Motel 6 Operating L.P., a Delaware Limited Partnership, d/b/a Motel 6, Petitioners, v. Maria Ramona LOPEZ, Respondent.

No. 96-0275.

Supreme Court of Texas.

June 28, 1996.

Larry W. Hicks, Monty Kimball, El Paso, for Petitioners.

Jose Montes, Jr., Michael Paul Moffeit, El Paso, for Respondent.

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

In this case, we decide whether the court of appeals erred in holding that a land owner could breach the duty owed to an invitee even though the invitee had not satisfied the threshold burden of showing that the land owner knew or should have known of the dangerous condition that caused her injury. We hold that the court of appeals erred in confusing the duty and breach elements of a premises liability claim. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and render judgment that Lopez take nothing from Motel 6.

Maria Ramona Lopez alleged that she suffered injuries when she fell in the shower in her motel room at a Motel 6 in El Paso, Texas. Lopez alleged that she stepped into the shower with her left foot first, felt that the floor of the shower was slippery, took off her bath robe, put her right foot in, and then slipped and fell. Lopez grabbed the faucet in an attempt to break her fall. It is undisputed that the shower stall contained no bars or rods that Lopez could have grabbed. Although Lopez did not allege that the floor of the shower was wet, she asserted that the floor felt "like--after you have mopped and there is still soap on the floor."

Lopez sued Motel 6 and the two manufacturers of the shower stall for negligence and strict products liability, although her petition did not clearly delineate which claims were asserted against which defendants. Paragraph four of her petition stated that she sought "to recover for personal injuries sustained by her as a result of a dangerous condition on Defendants' property, specifically, an extremely slippery and dangerous shower stall floor." In Paragraph five, she asserted that her injuries were "a direct result of a fall proximately caused by the dangerous condition of Defendants' shower stall floor."

In Paragraph six, she asserted that the stall was defective and unsafe for its intended use at the time it left the manufacturers and at the time it was sold to Motel 6. Specifically, she argued that the stall was defective because the design of the floor made the stall slippery and because the defendants:

failed to provide adequate slip resistant mats and/or slip resistant appliques or other devices. In addition Defendants failed to install adequate hand railings and/or grips in the shower. There was no warning that the shower floor was of a slippery and dangerous nature and would injure the user. Plaintiff therefore invokes the doctrine of strict liability. Plaintiff alleged [sic] that the defect in design was a producing cause of the injuries and damages.

Motel 6 moved for summary judgment on two grounds: that the stall was not unreasonably dangerous and that Motel 6 had no actual or constructive knowledge of a defective condition. Attached to its motion was an affidavit from Betty Strange, the manager of the Motel 6 where Lopez fell. She testified that she had managed that particular motel since 1989 and that all 146 rooms at the motel had the same type of shower stall as the one in which Lopez fell, except for seven that were specially equipped for disabled guests. She said that she had never received a complaint about a shower floor being slippery or about any other dangerous condition in the motel's showers. She explained that the room and shower stall had been inspected immediately before Lopez's arrival. Finally, she stated that she inspected the shower stall immediately after Lopez's fall and found no residue or other defect on the shower floor that could have made the floor slippery before Lopez turned on the water or that could have caused her fall. Motel 6 also attached excerpts from Lopez's deposition in which she testified that she did not know whether Motel 6 or any of its employees had notice of any dangerous condition in its showers. She also described the fall as "an accident" and said that she was not "blaming" the motel for her fall.

Lopez's response to the motion for summary judgment stated that the slippery floor was unreasonably dangerous. She then argued that Motel 6 challenged only one allegation, that it had negligently maintained a stall with a slippery floor, while ignoring a separate cause of action, namely that the motel failed to provide safety mats or bars and failed to warn of the dangers in the shower.

The trial court granted Motel 6's motion for summary judgment without stating the grounds and then severed the claims against Motel 6 from those remaining against the manufacturers.

The court of appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part. 932 S.W.2d 76. It affirmed the trial court's dismissal of the claim that Motel 6 negligently maintained the shower floor because it held as a matter of law that Motel 6 had no actual or constructive knowledge of any defect. But, the court of appeals also held that Lopez had asserted an independent theory of liability against Motel 6, the failure to install safety devices, that Motel 6 did not disprove. The court of appeals remanded this claim for trial. We hold that this was error.

The court of appeals's conclusion that Motel 6 had no actual or constructive knowledge of a dangerous condition in the shower precludes any premises liability claim, whether predicated upon negligent maintenance, a failure to warn, or the absence of safety devices. Even assuming that Lopez's allegation regarding the failure to install safety devices (which appeared in the paragraph...