Goodwin v. Al J. Schneider Co.

501 S.W.3d 894, 2016 Ky. LEXIS 505, 2016 WL 6125884
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 20, 2016
Docket2015-SC-000380-DG
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 501 S.W.3d 894 (Goodwin v. Al J. Schneider Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goodwin v. Al J. Schneider Co., 501 S.W.3d 894, 2016 Ky. LEXIS 505, 2016 WL 6125884 (Ky. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

JUSTICE KELLER

The circuit court granted summary judgment to Al J. Schneider Company d/b/a the Galt House and Galt House East (the Galt House) in this slip-and-fall case. Ralph M. Goodwin appeals from the opinion of the Court of Appeals affirming that summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse and remand.

I. BACKGROUND.

The salient facts are not in dispute, Ralph Goodwin and his wife were attending a convention at the Galt House in August 2011. The day after their arrival, Goodwin slipped and fell as he was getting into the bathtub to take a shower, injuring his knee. The bathtub, which had a grab bar,- did not -have a bathmat. After Goodwin fell, hotel personnel provided him with a bathmat,. and Goodwin learned from other convention attendees that their rooms had bathmats.

Goodwin filed suit, alleging that: he was an invitee; the surface of the bathtub was slick and constituted a dangerous condition; the Galt House knew of the condition; the Galt House failed to exercise reasonable care to remove the dangerous condi[896]*896tion or to warn patrons of its existence; and his injuries were a result of the Galt House’s failure to exercise ordinary care. The Galt House responded alleging, in pertinent part; that Goodwin’s injuries were the result of his failure to exercise ordinary care.

Following discovery, the Galt House filed a motion- for summary judgment, which the court granted. In doing so, the court stated that it was unconvinced the Galt House had assumed a duty to provide bathmats for all rooms because it provided bathmats for some rooms. Furthermore, citing Jones v. Abner, 335 S.W.3d 471, 477 (Ky. App. 2011) the court found that, while a hotel must provide safe accommodations, it is not “an insurer of a guest’s safety.”

Goodwin appealed, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The Court noted that Abner was decided before this Court rendered Shelton v. Kentucky Easter Seals Society, Inc., 413 S.W.3d 901 (Ky. 2013). However, the Court disagreed with Goodwin that the holding in Shelton precluded summary judgment in this case, stating as follows:

We disagree that Shelton precludes granting summary judgment to the Galt House under these circumstances. The Galt House owed a duty to Goodwin, as an invitee, “to discover unreasonably dangerous conditions in the hotel and either eliminate or warn of them.” [Shelton, 413 S.W.3d] at 909. However, there was no breach of this duty, as a matter of law, because while a bathtub can present a danger of falling when being used for showering, it is not -unreasonably dangerous and its potential hazard is obvious.
Goodwin had previously used the shower and was aware of its condition. A grab bar was available to assist his entrance into the tub, but he did not use it. While Goodwin claimed the tub was slippery, there was no evidence that it was more slippery than a typical wet tub or its slickness was the result of any foreign substance. Under these circumstances, a wet tub is akin to other open-and-obvious dangers that do not create an unreasonable risk such as a small pothole, steep stairs or a simple curb. Id. at 914.
We reject Goodwin’s argument that the Galt House had a specific duty to provide bathmats to guests. There is no requirement, either through industry standards, statutory law or common law, for innkeepers to provide bathmats to their guests. We also disagree that the Galt House’s voluntary provision of bathmats to some guests could create such a duty. Therefore, summary judgment was properly granted because it would be unreasonable for a jury to find a breach of the Galt House’s duty of reasonable care under the circumstances. Id. at 916.1

We granted discretionary review to address the application of Shelton by the Court of Appeals.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW.

“The standard of review on appeal of a summary judgment is whether the circuit judge correctly found that there were no issues as to any material fact and that the moving party was entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Pearson ex rel. Trent v. Nat'l Feeding Systems, Inc., 90 S.W.3d 46, 49 (Ky. 2002). Summary judgment is only proper when “it would be impossible for the respondent to produce any evidence at the trial warranting a judgment [897]*897in his favor.” Steelvest, Inc. v. Scansteel Service Center, Inc., 807 S.W.2d 476, 480 (Ky. 1991). In ruling on a motion for summary judgment, the Court is required to construe the record “in a light most favorable to the party opposing the motion ... and all doubts are to be resolved in his favor.” Id. at 480. However, courts must be mindful that “summary judgment is not to be used as a defense mechanism. Instead, summary judgment is to be cautiously employed for cases where there is no legitimate claim under the law and it would be impossible to assert one given the facts.” Shelton, 413 S.W.3d at 916.

III. ANALYSIS.

This Court began reconciling the application- of the open and obvious doctrine with the law of comparative negligence in 2010. See Kentucky River Medical Center v. McIntosh, 319 S.W.3d 385 (Ky. 2010). We have since refined our analysis regarding the interaction of those legal concepts in Shelton and Carter v. Bullitt Host, LLC, 471 S.W.3d 288 (Ky. 2015).

In McIntosh, an EMT, who was transporting a patient into the hospital’s emergency room, tripped over a curb ancl injured her hip and wrist. 319 S.W.3d at 387. The evidence indicated that the EMT had previously negotiated that entrance without incident. Id. The hospital moved for summary judgment arguing that the curb was an open and obvious condition of which the EMT was aware and the hospital therefore had no liability. Id. at 388. In affirming the trial court’s denial of summary judgment, this Court held that;

The lower courts should not merely label a danger as “obvious” and then deny recovery. Rather, they must ask whether the land possessor could reasonably foresee that an invitee would be injured by the danger. If the land possessor can foresee the injury, but nevertheless fails to take reasonable precautions to prevent the injury, he can be held liable. ■Thus, this Court rejects the minority position, which absolves, ipso facto, land possessors from liability when a court labels the danger open and obvious.

Id. at 392. Applying this rule, the Court held that the hospital could have reasonably foreseen that an EMT, focused on saving a patient’s life, would proceed in the face of a known risk, and the EMT’s knowledge of that risk did not negate the hospital’s duty of care. Id. at 394.

In Shelton,

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501 S.W.3d 894, 2016 Ky. LEXIS 505, 2016 WL 6125884, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goodwin-v-al-j-schneider-co-ky-2016.