Tom Connick and DCTB successful in Eighth District Court of Appeals

Recently, the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals ruled in favor of my client, The City of Cleveland Department of Port Control, dismissing a slip and fall case brought by a woman who fell in a puddle of water in the open air parking garage adjacent to the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport terminal. The woman claimed that she was distracted by other pedestrians as she entered the Airport, and therefore did not notice the puddle.  During her deposition, however, the woman admitted that she saw the puddle of water and even tried avoiding it because she knew she could slip and fall. The trial court dismissed the claim under Ohio’s “Open and Obvious” Doctrine, which holds that a property owner has no duty to protect people from dangers that are so obvious and apparent that they may be expected to discover them and protect themselves.  Plaintiff appealed the trial court’s ruling, alleging that her claim was not barred by the Doctrine because of “attendant circumstances,” which in this case she alleged were the other patrons who distracted her attention.  The appellate court disagreed, holding that “[t]he evidence in the present case does not support a finding of attendant circumstances. Rather, the evidence demonstrates that it was O’Brien’s own disregard of the condition, after observing the puddle and appreciating the potential risk of falling if she walked through it, that resulted in her fall.”