Wade Clark Mulcahy LLP

It is a well-known legal principle that a property owner does not have a responsibility to warn a guest on their property of a danger that is open, obvious, and not inherently dangerous. A big bottomless hole in your front lawn is pretty hard to miss; you probably don’t need to warn someone to avoid that so they don’t fall forever. They can see it for themselves. But what if they can’t? What happens if something that a person would normally be able to notice with their senses is obscured or they get distracted? Can something that normally is so obvious become a trap? Yes, it can. It is entirely possible.

This was the situation in the case of Beier v. Giglio. Elspeth Beier was descending a single-step riser on the Defendant’s property, but immediately became blinded by sunlight beaming directly into her eyes. This problem was amplified by the sunlight being reflected off of multiple surfaces on the property, making it nearly impossible for her to see and causing her to miss the five-inch step down, falling and injuring herself. The Defendant moved to dismiss the case via summary judgment on the ground that the step down was open, obvious, and inherently dangerous, seemingly also arguing that because she had to step up to get onto the deck, she should have been aware of it.

The lower Court denied this motion, and it was affirmed on appeal. Both courts found that the Defendant failed to demonstrate that the existence of these reflective surfaces on the Defendant’s property in concert with the step was without question an open, obvious, and not inherently dangerous condition. Further, they found that the Plaintiff’s deposition testimony that when she previously stepped up onto the deck, she was not fully conscious of the height difference raised a question of fact of if her decision to keep walking was unreasonable. All of these matters together warranted denial of this motion.

The most important lesson to take away from this case is the same with any premises liability case: the importance of keeping one’s property in a safe and as close to risk-free condition as possible. For as shown, even if a danger would normally be so obvious to anyone with eyes as to not be negligent, all it takes is for some condition to hide that danger to suddenly make it a trap.