Hanson v. Town & Country Shopping Center, Inc.

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that “[t]o sustain a charge of negligence the unsafe condition relied on must be one of which the owner knew or should have known”
• noting that an open or obvious defect might be the equivalent of a trap or pitfall simply because the possessor should be cognizant that the invitee would have no reason to anticipate it, appreciate the hazard, or guard against it
• reversing directed verdict for defendant and holding plaintiffs slip and fall on defendant’s icy parking lot generated a jury question on whether defendant breached its duty of care to the plaintiff
• overturning directed verdict where plaintiff was injured after falling on ice in defendant’s parking lot and stating a defect in the premises need not be “hidden or in the nature of a trap or pitfall in order to constitute negligence”
• jury question engendered where shopping center dumped snow cleared from sidewalk and parking area into area where plaintiff fell; condition was “actively created by defendant depositing snow in the area with thawing and freezing a distinct probability”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).