Jill Miller v. Rosehill Hotels, LLC d/b/a Holiday Inn Express Intercontinental Hotel Group d/b/a Holiday Inn Express

45 N.E.3d 15, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 668, 2015 WL 5822706
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 6, 2015
Docket48A02-1504-CT-246
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 45 N.E.3d 15 (Jill Miller v. Rosehill Hotels, LLC d/b/a Holiday Inn Express Intercontinental Hotel Group d/b/a Holiday Inn Express) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jill Miller v. Rosehill Hotels, LLC d/b/a Holiday Inn Express Intercontinental Hotel Group d/b/a Holiday Inn Express, 45 N.E.3d 15, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 668, 2015 WL 5822706 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

BROWN, Judge.

[1] Jill Miller appeals the trial court’s entry of summary judgment in favor of Rosehill Hotels, LLC d/b/a Holiday Inn Express and Intercontinental Hotel Group d/b/a Holiday Inn Express (together, the “Hotel”) and the denial of her motion to correct error. Miller raises one issue which we revise and restate as whether the court erred in entering summary judgment in favor of the Hotel and abused its discretion in denying her motion to correct error. We reverse and remand.

Facts and Procedural History

[2] At about 8:00 or 8:30 a.m. on January 19, 2011, Miller exited the Holiday Inn Express in Anderson, Indiana, where she had stayed the previous night: Miller observed a “dusting of snow” and walked to her vehicle, which was approximately thirty feet from the carport. Appellant’s Appendix at 33. By the time she reached her vehicle, she noticed that the parking lot was a “little slick.” Id. at 35. She entered her vehicle, listened to a weather report on the radio, and then cancelled a work appointment scheduled for that day. She then moved her vehicle as close as she could to the carport or sidewalk near the carport, exited her vehicle, closed the door, and walked behind another car and approximately fifteen to seventeen feet to the sidewalk. As she stepped from the parking lot up onto the sidewalk, Miller slipped and fell.

[3] On January 15, 2013, she filed a complaint against the Hotel alleging in part that it was guilty of the careless or negligent acts or omissions of failing to remove ice or snow from the entrance and exit way from the premises, to provide a safe area for her to walk after she had exited her car and was walking to the hotel, to properly remove ice or snow from the designated walkway of the premises, to warn her of any obstacles present in the path of the entrance and exit for the premises, and to make a reasonable inspection of the premises when it knew or should have known that inspection was necessary to prevent the premises from becoming dangerous. The Hotel filed an answer and asserted affirmative defenses including that Miller incurred or assumed the risk of the accident and injuries and that her own negligence caused or contributed to the alleged accident.

[4] On October 27, 2014, the Hotel filed a motion for summary judgment, a brief in support of its motion, and supporting evidence. An entry in the chronological case summary (the “COS”) dated October 29, 2014, states that Miller had thirty days after service of the Hotel’s motion for sum *17 mary judgment to respond in accordance with Ind. Trial Rule 56 and that, if no timely response was filed, the Hotel’s motion may be granted without further notice or hearing.

[5] On November 19, 2014, Miller filed a motion for an enlargement of time, and the court granted her motion and ordered Miller to file her response to the Hotel’s sümmary judgment motion on or before January 20, 2015. On February 10, 2015, Miller filed her own motion for summary judgment arguing that the Hotel had breached its duty to exercise reasonable care as a matter of law.

[6] In support of its summary judgment motion, the Hotel designated selected pages of Miller’s deposition. In her deposition, when asked to describe what happened, she testified that she had gathered her things to go to meetings; that she went outside, that “[t]he ground was snow covered,” and that she walked to her vehicle. Id. at 31. She testified her vehicle “was parked maybe 30 feet to the right from the carport, and ... about one row out.” Id. She testified that she entered her vehicle and turned on the radio to listen to' the weather report and that the report “was kind of sketchy for the day.” Id. She testified “[s]o [she] called [her] contact ... and let him know that [she] was not going to come, because'it was a pretty hefty drive from Anderson to the [ ] facility that [she] was going to” and “told him [she] was not going to come in, because the weather sounded like it was not great and going to get worse that day.” Id. She also testified that she believed she sent an email message to her boss to tell him she “was cancelling the conference call because [she] wasn’t willing to die for him.” Id. Miller further testified that she “moved [her] car as close as [she] could to the carport, the sidewalk that comes from the carport, and gathered [her] things,” that she “got [her] coffee and [her] back-back,” and that she “stepped out of the vehicle went to, step up on the curb and went down.” Id. at 32..

[7] When asked if she had checked the weather conditions before she departed the hotel, Miller replied, “I did not. I looked outside,” and when asked what she saw, she stated “[a] dusting of snow.” Id. at 33. When asked what she meant by her statement that she cancelled her meeting because she did not want to die, she answered “I felt like it was probably going to get bad out, and I didn’t — it was treacherous.” Id. at 34. When asked if it was “going to get bad out” or “was it already bad out,” Miller testified “[w]ell, I felt like it was a little slick.” Id. When asked if she knew when she went to her car that the weather conditions were bad, she answered: “I knew when I got to my — -by the time that I got to my car, yeah.” Id. She also indicated there was less than an inch of snow on the ground and -did not recall if it was snowing at the time.

[8] When asked her reason for moving her car, Miller testified “[b]ecause as I walked out of the hotel, I had to walk across the parking lot, arid that felt a little uncomfortable,” and whén asked how, she testified “[u]ncomfdrtable like you didn’t know what wa's under your feet, ice. It was a little slick. The sidewalk had been salted that I walked on. So the reason that I moved my car was to'get closer to the sidewalk beyond the carport so that I could get back. That was my best route to getting back onto a safe sidéwalk.”' Id. at 35. When asked “[s]o when you walked out to the car, you knew that there was snow and ice on the ground,” Miller said “[b]y the time-that I stood on the — as I got closer to my car, yes, it was obvious.” <Id; at 36. Miller was asked “as I understand it, you moved your car because you knew that the conditions were bad and you *18 wanted to get closer to the entrance,” and she said “[y]es.” Id.

[9] Miller was then asked to explain her route of travel from her vehicle to where she fell, and she testified that she exited her car, -that “there was a car parked to the left of me, and then there was a carport, or the sidewalk that goes to the carport,” and that she “shut the door, walked behind the ■ car, and stepped up onto the curb on that sidewalk past the carport, and from there I went down. I stepped up onto the sidewalk.” Id. She testified that she walked from her vehicle to the point where she fell “15, 17 feet. Maybe a little bit more.” Id. at 37. She testified that she had a cup of coffee in her hand and a backpack on her shoulder, and that she had been wearing jeans and steel toe shoes as she often spends time on the floor of manufacturing and food and beverage facilities.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
45 N.E.3d 15, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 668, 2015 WL 5822706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jill-miller-v-rosehill-hotels-llc-dba-holiday-inn-express-indctapp-2015.