Munzi v. Kennedy

538 A.2d 1015, 1988 R.I. LEXIS 39, 1988 WL 23414

Opinion

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

On March 8, 1988 the plaintiff, through her counsel, appeared before this court to show cause why her appeal from the grant by a Superior Court justice of the defendants’ motion for summary judgment should not be denied. The plaintiff was seeking damages for injuries she received when she fell down a flight of stairs which ran from the first to the second floor in a single-family residence that the defendants had rented to the plaintiffs son. The plaintiff faults the defendants for the absence of a handrail and inadequate lighting.

Recently in Ward v. Watson, 524 A.2d 1108, 1109 (R.I. 1987), we reiterated the “long-settled rule that in Rhode Island a landlord is not liable for injuries sustained by a tenant or guest on the tenant’s premises, unless the injury results from a latent defect known to the landlord but not to the tenant, or from the landlord’s breach of a covenant to repair.” There is no dispute that the landlords never made any agreement relative to repairs, and it is obvious that the lack of a handrail and the alleged lighting conditions were patent, rather than latent, defects.

The plaintiffs’ appeal is denied and dismissed. The judgment appealed from is affirmed.