Meckel v. Lehigh Valley Health Network

47 Pa. D. & C.5th 364
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lehigh County
DecidedApril 23, 2015
DocketNo. 2014-C-0054
StatusPublished

This text of 47 Pa. D. & C.5th 364 (Meckel v. Lehigh Valley Health Network) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lehigh County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Meckel v. Lehigh Valley Health Network, 47 Pa. D. & C.5th 364 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2015).

Opinion

REICHLEY, J.,

This is a premises liability action wherein plaintiff alleges she was injured when she struck a large trash container on wheels located in a hallway of defendants’ premises. Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment on the basis that plaintiff cannot recover for her injuries as a matter of law. For the reasons set forth herein, defendants’ motion is granted.

Factual and Procedural History

According to the complaint, plaintiff, a fifty-six-year-old woman, was participating in a “Life Sharing Program.” This program involved her sharing her home with two mentally challenged individuals. On November 12, 2012, plaintiff escorted two adult “life shares,” a male and a female, to the male’s appointment with defendant Lehigh Valley Urology Specialty Care. The male individual suffered from cerebral palsy, so plaintiff was pushing him in a wheelchair. Plaintiff testified during her deposition that the male was heavy, so she had to put effort into moving him. The female with them held open the door to defendant’s suite for the appointment so that plaintiff could push the male inside. Down the hallway from that area, some individuals were doing construction, which plaintiff observed as they entered the suite.

After the appointment, plaintiff opened the door and walked backward out of the office pulling the wheelchair. [367]*367She turned to her right and backed into a large trash receptacle, which the parties refer to as a “dumpster.” The receptacle was “smack right at the edge of the hall door,” according to plaintiff’s deposition. (Deposition of Linda Meckel, December 12, 2014, at 65.) Photographs submitted to the court show that the receptacle was located just to the right of the door to the suite when looking at the suite from the outside. Plaintiff acknowledged in her deposition that the area was sufficiently lit and she did not look around behind or to her sides as she backed out. Plaintiff claims striking the dumpster caused a shock to her nervous system and she needed to have surgeries as a result of hitting it.

On January 9, 2014, plaintiff filed a complaint in the within action. Discovery proceeded and the instant motion for summary judgment was filed March 11, 2015.

The court heard argument on April 14, 2015, at which time all parties were represented by counsel. At the close of the argument, the court took the matter under advisement.

This opinion follows.

Standard of Review

Before the court is a motion for summary judgment. The standard for summary judgment is well-established.

A court may grant a motion for summary judgment only when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Bronson v. Horn, 830 A.2d 1092 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2003), [368]*368affd, 577 Pa. 653, 848 A.2d 917 (2004), cert. denied, 543 U.S. 944, 125 S.Ct. 369, 160 L.Ed.2d 257 (2004). The right to judgment must be clear and free from doubt. Id. In reviewing the granting of a motion for summary judgment, this court must “view the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and all doubts as to the existence of a genuine issue of material fact must be resolved against the moving party.” Pappas v. Asbel, 564 Pa. 407, 418, 768 A.2d 1089, 1095 (2001).

Lambert v. Katz, 8 A.3d 409, 413 n.3 (Pa. Cmwth. 2010).

Discussion

Defendants’ motion for summary judgment asserts plaintiff’s premises liability claim fails as a matter of law. It is uncontested that plaintiff’s legal status was that of an invitee for premises liability purposes. An invitee is someone who is “invited to enter or remain on land as a member of the public for a purpose for which the land is held open to the public.” Restatement (Second) of Torts §332 (1965). As a general rule, possessors of land are not liable to invitees for physical harms caused to them by activities or conditions on the land whose danger is known or obvious to them unless the possessor should anticipate the harm despite such knowledge or obviousness. Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 343A.

A danger is deemed to be “obvious” when “both the condition and the risk are apparent to and would be recognized by a reasonable man, in the position of the visitor, exercising normal perception, intelligence, and [369]*369judgment.” Carrender v. Fitterer, 469 A.2d 120, 123-24 (Pa. 1983) (citation omitted). “For a danger to be ‘known,’ it must not only be known to exist, but...also be recognized that it is dangerous and the probability and gravity of the threatened harm must be appreciated.” Id. at 124.

The question of whether conditions on land were in fact open and obvious is generally a question of fact for a juiy to decide. Id. It may, however, be decided by a court where reasonable minds could not differ as to the conclusion. Id.; see also Long v. Manzo, 682 A.2d 370, 373 (Pa. Super. 1996) (citation omitted) (issues of plaintiff’s knowledge of condition creating unreasonable risk of harm usually for jury to decide, but may be decided by court where reasonable minds could not differ).

Aunique factor in this case is that plaintiff acknowledged that she was walking backward when she exited the office suite of Lehigh Valley Urology Specialty Care. As the Superior Court of Pennsylvania has long observed, “if there is anything settled in the law of negligence in Pennsylvania, it is the duty of a person to look where he is walking and see that which is obvious.” Villano v. Sec. Sav. Ass’n, 407 A.2d 440, 441 (Pa. Super. 1979) (quoting Lewis v. Duquesne Inclined Plane Co., 28 A.2d 925, 926 (Pa. 1942)). While there is a relative paucity of case law offering comparable factual circumstances, federal cases applying Pennsylvania law to premises liability actions consistently find that summary judgment is warranted and appropriate where a person fails to look behind him- or herself when walking backward. See, e.g., Graham v. [370]*370Moran Foods, Inc., 2012 WL 1808952 (E.D. Pa. 2012) (as a matter of law, a pallet on the ground in a supermarket was an obvious condition that plaintiff did not see because she walked backward without looking where she was going).

For purposes of summary judgment, defendants concede that the trash receptacle was located outside the office suite and was placed there during the time plaintiff was inside. Defendants further do not contest for purposes of summary judgment that plaintiff exited the suite and injured herself when she encountered the trash receptacle.

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Related

Villano v. Security Savings Ass'n
407 A.2d 440 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1979)
Bronson v. Horn
830 A.2d 1092 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2003)
Pappas v. Asbel
768 A.2d 1089 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2001)
Carrender v. Fitterer
469 A.2d 120 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1983)
Long v. Manzo
682 A.2d 370 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1996)
Bronson v. Horn
848 A.2d 917 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2004)
Lambert v. Katz
8 A.3d 409 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2010)
Lewis v. Duquesne Inclined Plane Co.
28 A.2d 925 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1942)

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Bluebook (online)
47 Pa. D. & C.5th 364, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meckel-v-lehigh-valley-health-network-pactcompllehigh-2015.