In a six-page judgment entry today, the First District held that “[t]he open-and-obvious doctrine still applies in Ohio,” and affirmed summary judgment in favor of a homeowner in a slip-and-fall case. The court explained that the open and obvious nature of a hazard itself serves as a warning, and that a homeowner is therefore under no duty to warn an invitee or a social guest. There were no attendant circumstances in this case; “the attendant circumstances exception is narrow and does not encompass the common and the ordinary.”
The injured person additionally sued the contractor who built the bookshelves into the stair landing, arguing that they were negligently installed, which narrowed the landing and created a visual distraction for visitors approaching the step. Although the court agreed that ”[a] contractor is liable to all those who may be foreseeably injured by the dangerous condition of a structure, not only when the contractor fails to disclose known dangerous conditions, but also when the work is negligently done,” the court again explained that if any dangerous condition existed, it was “noticeable,” and the injured person therefore should have been able to discover it.
The case is Adab v. Faradid U.S., Inc. [PDF]
This post was written by Jeffrey M. Nye.
