Staub v. Myrtle Lake Resort, LLC
| Citation | 964 N.W.2d 613 |
| Decision Date | 22 September 2021 |
| Docket Number | A20-0267 |
| Parties | Virginia STAUB, AS TRUSTEE and next-of-kin OF Joyce Esther WEEKS, decedent, Appellant, v. MYRTLE LAKE RESORT, LLC, and James Lown, Respondents. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Minnesota (US) |
Jeremy Brantingham, Patrick McDonald, Brantingham Law Office, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Andrew Irlbeck, Andrew Irlbeck Lawyer Chartered, Saint Paul, Minnesota, for appellant Virginia Staub.
Jerome D. Feriancek, Paige V. Orcutt, Trial Group North, PLLP, Duluth, Minnesota, for respondent Myrtle Lake Resort, LLC.
Michael J. Tomsche, Kelly P. Magnus, Tomsche, Sonnesyn & Tomsche, P.A., Golden Valley, Minnesota, for respondent James Lown.
James S. Ballentine, Matthew J. Barber, Schwebel Goetz & Sieben, P.A., Minneapolis, Minnesota, for amicus curiae Minnesota Association for Justice.
Louise A. Behrendt, Emily L. Mugaas, Meagher & Geer, PLLP, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for amicus curiae Minnesota Defense Lawyers Association.
This case arises from the death of Joyce Weeks,1 who fell down a concrete stair, which is attached to the main lodge building at Myrtle Lake Resort in Orr, Minnesota. Appellant Virginia Staub, as Joyce's trustee and next of kin, brought a wrongful death claim against respondents Myrtle Lake Resort, LLC and James Lown (collectively respondents), asserting that the degraded and dangerous condition of the stair proximately caused Joyce's fall and death.
Myrtle Lake and Lown each moved for summary judgment. The district court granted the motions based on lack of proximate cause because no witness saw how Joyce began to fall. The district court reasoned that a jury would have to "engage in speculation" to find that Myrtle Lake's and Lown's alleged negligence proximately caused Joyce's death. The court of appeals affirmed.
We hold that the district court erred by granting summary judgment because a genuine issue of material fact exists as to the question of whether the condition of the stair proximately caused Joyce to fall. Because this case comes to us following a grant of summary judgment, we apply our well-settled rule that all evidence in the record and all reasonable inferences that a jury may draw from such evidence must be viewed in a light most favorable to Staub, the nonmoving party. See Henson v. Uptown Drink, LLC , 922 N.W.2d 185, 189–90 (Minn. 2019). We also reaffirm our well-established rule that a plaintiff need not introduce direct eyewitness evidence of a fall to establish proximate cause. See Majerus v. Guelsow , 262 Minn. 1, 113 N.W.2d 450, 455 (1962).
Further, we apply our rule that a plaintiff may use circumstantial evidence to establish that a particular condition was one substantial factor in causing an injury when a jury may reasonably infer that the condition was such a substantial factor. See Osborne v. Twin Town Bowl, Inc. , 749 N.W.2d 367, 372 (Minn. 2008) ; Smith v. Kahler Corp. , 297 Minn. 272, 211 N.W.2d 146, 150 (1973). Finally, we note that summary judgment is inappropriate when a plaintiff's proximate cause theory asserts that a condition is a substantial factor in causing an injury under one of the following circumstances: (1) the plaintiff's theory is consistent with alternative proximate cause theories or, (2) when the plaintiff's theory is inconsistent with such alternative theories, it preponderates over those alternative theories. See Osborne , 749 N.W.2d at 380 n.8.
Accordingly, we reverse the court of appeals and remand to that court to address the remaining issues on appeal.
On July 10, 2016, Joyce Weeks fell down a concrete stair, which is attached to the main lodge building at Myrtle Lake Resort. She sustained a spinal cord fracture and died one week later. On June 26, 2018, Joyce's daughter, Virginia Staub, as trustee and next of kin for Joyce, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Myrtle Lake and Lown. Lown is the president and sole member of Myrtle Lake, which owns the resort property.
In her complaint, Staub alleged that Myrle Lake's and Lown's negligent failure to maintain the stair in a safe condition proximately caused Joyce's fall. She also alleged that Joyce and her husband Sam Weeks had repeatedly complained about the stair, telling Lown that it was unsafe and needed to be replaced. The stair consisted of a small landing immediately outside of the lodge door and two sets of steps leading down from each side of the landing: one longer set of ten steps leading down toward the lake and a shorter set of five steps facing the parking area. Each set of steps had a wooden railing alongside it. Joyce fell down the longer set of steps. Witnesses observed her during the course of the fall, but no one directly saw how she began to fall. Consequently, as to the question of how Joyce fell, the record consists of circumstantial evidence, including deposition testimony and accompanying affidavits from witnesses present at the time of the fall and two expert reports.
Three witnesses testified as to the events surrounding Joyce's fall: Sam Weeks (Joyce's husband), George Brown (a friend of Joyce and Sam and frequent resort guest), and David Wilcox (another resort guest).
Sam testified that he and Joyce lived at the resort full time and served as caretakers by performing maintenance work, cleaning the cabins, and running the lodge's bar and restaurant. Shortly after taking over operations for the resort in 2014, and many times thereafter, Sam told Lown that the stair was "dangerous[,]" "in terrible shape[,]" and needed to be replaced. For example, the landing at the top of the stair was "rough, rocky[,]" and uneven, and the steps themselves were "leaning, chipped, cracked, [and] weathered."
Although the lodge had other means of ingress and egress, the stair was the primary means by which Joyce and Sam accessed their living quarters in the lodge; alternative routes—such as an inside stairway—generally were not available because of guest privacy concerns. On most days, Joyce would wash guests’ laundry and linens in the upstairs of the lodge and take the laundry basket out to her car to drive to the cabins. She typically used the stair to exit the lodge. Joyce had complained about and had issues using the stair and would use the shorter set of steps facing the parking area, not the longer set of steps down which she fell. Although she had a knee replacement 6 to 8 months before the fall, she "was doing real well" and "had no problems."
On the morning of July 10, 2016, Sam was inside the lodge eating breakfast and preparing to take his insulin. He "heard a holler" and looked out the window to see the laundry basket Joyce had carried outside sitting on the landing. He opened the door and saw Joyce laying at the bottom of the longer set of steps. He rushed down to her, found her unresponsive, and started CPR. Sam did not see Joyce fall. He stated that because Joyce would always use the shorter set of steps, he could not "understand how she went down the other side."
Brown testified that he was a frequent resort guest and a friend of Sam and Joyce who, along with his wife Delaine, helped with maintenance and upkeep around the resort when visiting. He testified that Joyce would normally park her car near the shorter set of steps and set the laundry basket down on the landing so Delaine could pick it up, take it to the car, and accompany Joyce to clean the cabins. Sometimes, however, Joyce would take the basket directly to the car on her own. And although Sam testified that Joyce always took the shorter set of steps, Brown stated that he had seen Joyce use the longer set of steps "many times before that."
On July 10, 2016, Brown and Delaine were having coffee in the lodge with Sam and Joyce. Joyce got up to get her car keys and retrieve the laundry in preparation for cleaning the cabins. Sam went to the living quarters to take his insulin while Joyce "went out." Brown got up to go outside, but first looked out the lakeside window to see how David Wilcox—another guest—was doing fishing that morning. He then saw Wilcox "running up the hill" from the lake. Brown went out the door by the stair and heard Wilcox say that Joyce "fell off the steps." He looked down and saw Joyce "rolling off the steps" and managed to stop her on the last step. Brown "did not see the start of her fall," nor did he see her at the top of the steps before she fell. He only saw Joyce after she was "already halfway down" the steps.2 Brown could not recall with certainty whether anything had been placed on the stair, though he said the laundry basket may have been set on the "left-hand side" of the landing. Brown said that he didn't know whether Joyce had planned to use the longer set of steps or whether she just fell off that side.3
Wilcox testified that he was a friend of Brown's and had been staying at the resort for a few days before Joyce's fall. On the morning of July 10, 2016, Wilcox was on the main dock along the lake fishing by himself, facing away from the lodge. He heard Joyce come out of the door of the lodge and "looked over" briefly to see her put the laundry basket down near the middle of the landing. Wilcox then turned back to the lake and continued fishing. About 30 to 60 seconds later, Wilcox heard a set of keys drop on concrete but did not turn to look. Shortly thereafter, Wilcox heard Joyce make a startled "whoo" noise. He turned around and saw her "hit the ground" or "roll" at the bottom of the longer set of steps.4 He did not see Joyce begin to fall, and did not know how she lost her balance, how she fell, whether she hung onto the railing along the landing or steps, or whether she was using the longer set of steps intentionally before she fell. Wilcox started up to where Joyce had fallen, but Brown came out of the lodge and got to Joyce first. Sam got there about a minute later.
Expert reports
Both Staub and Myrtle Lake had expert reports completed on the condition of the stair....
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