INDIANAPOLIS (Legal Newsline) – Verbal and large written warnings about an allegedly dangerous step at an Indiana restaurant is enough for it to avoid liability for the fall of one of its customers.
The Indiana Court of Appeals on Nov. 30 ruled against Sharon Kaufman in her case against The Channel Marker of Syracuse, Ind., that stemmed from a fall in April 2018.
The bar area of the restaurant is lower than the restaurant, but a vertical sign warning “WATCH YOUR STEP” has adequately alerted customers for years, the restaurant said. In fact, no other customer had ever been injured there.
Kaufman’s server testified that when she seated Kaufman and her companion that day, she warned her to watch her step before leading them into the bar seating area.
She also saw Kaufman go back to the elevated portion to use the restroom at least once before the fall. Kaufman left the restaurant but had to return to retrieve her purse.
“(Dana) Polman further stated that Kaufman left her purse in the bar eating area and that, when she returned later that night to pick up her purse, she ‘was walking quickly and appeared to be in a hurry as she approached the bar seating area’ and, when she reached the step, she fell,” Judge Elaine Brown wrote.
It all added up to a known and obvious condition that defeated Kaufman’s attempt to hold The Channel Marker liable. The trial judge granted the defendant’s motion for summary judgment that argued Kaufman used the step multiple times while there without incident and that no other customer had ever injured themselves on the step in 24 years.
It also noted a rail at the step and a silver strip of metal along its edge to grab customers’ attention.
“While she stated the sign was ‘in a weird place’ and ‘I never did see that,’ Kaufman testified that she ‘would have necessarily walked past’ the warning sign and that she knew the step was there,” Brown wrote.
“The Channel Marker did not have knowledge that Kaufman did not possess, and could not have informed her of, any facts of which she was not already aware. Also, it did not have reason to expect Kaufman would be distracted and fail to protect herself,” Brown wrote.