ANDREWS
v.
NARBER

Fla. | 1952-07-18
59 So. 2d 869 Florida Supreme Court (1952) Negative Treatment
Also reported at: 59 So.2d 869 · 1952 Fla. LEXIS 1734
Cited by 21 cases

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Synopsis

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's decision to dismiss a personal injury lawsuit. The court held that a hotel owner is not liable for a patron slipping on a wet walkway adjacent to a swimming pool, as such conditions are common and expected.


Holding

No, the hotel owner is not liable. The court held that it is common knowledge that walkways around swimming pools are often wet and slippery, and owners are not insurers of patron safety. The patron's alleged blindness does not absolve her of the responsibility to exercise due care.


Key Quotes

“The owner of the premises, which included the bath house, hotel, cocktail lounge and concrete walk adjacent to the bath house, is not an insurer of the safety of his patrons or invitees.”

Establishes the legal standard for premises liability, stating owners are not absolute guarantors of safety.

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Facts & Procedural History

A hotel patron sued the owner after slipping and falling on a wet, slippery concrete walkway next to the swimming pool. She alleged the owner negligen…

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Opinion of the Court
Mathews

MATHEWS, Justice.

This is an appeal from a final judgment on the pleadings in a personal injury action.

After the original complaint was dismissed with leave to amend, an amended complaint was filed. The plaintiff below, appellant here, alleged that the defendant below, appellee here, maintained and operated certain premises consisting of a hotel, swimming pool, bar or cocktail lounge, and other facilities for public patronage; that she had a standing invitation from the defendant to use the premises, swimming pool and all other facilities at any time; that as a guest and invitee of the defendant, she entered upon the premises for the purpose of using the swimming pool; that it was the duty of the defendant to maintain the premises, swimming pool and the walkway adjacent to the pool in a safe condition for guests and invitees; that the defendant failed to perform his duty but carelessly and negligently permitted water from an open spigot to flow through a garden hose and collect and puddle upon the cement walkway adjacent to and near the pool, same being provided for nonbathing guests and invitees as well as bathers, as a consequence of which the walkway became slick, slippery and unsafe; that as she approached the walkway from the East and facing in a Westerly direction the sun was bright and blinding and her vision was momentarily obscured and she was unable to observe the unexpected water standing upon said walkway; as a result of all of this, she slipped and fell and received an injury for which she claimed damages. She further alleged that the water on the walkway was not obvious except on close examination and that she was unaware of its dangerous and unsafe condition; that the defendant knowingly permitted the water to flow upon and accummulate on the walkway for several hours and that he knew, or should have known, of the water collected upon the walkway and of the unsafe and dangerous condition of the walkway.

The defendant in his answer moved to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that it failed to state a cause of action and that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence in that she failed to exercise due care for her own safety.

In due course the Circuit Judge granted the motion to dismiss the amended complaint and the plaintiff having announced that she did not care to amend further, final judgment was entered.

*870 The appellant here insists that water puddling upon a concrete walkway adjacent to a swimming pool, made the walkway dangerous and that it was negligence on the part of the owner to permit water to remain upon such concrete walkway adjacent to said swimming pool for several hours.

The owner of the premises, which included the bath house, hotel, cocktail lounge and concrete walk adjacent to the bath house, is not an insurer of the safety of his patrons or invitees. See 52 Am.Jur., p. 315, Sec. 71 of the article on Theaters, Shows, Exhibitions, Etc. In this article on page 316, it is stated:

"The owner or proprietor of a bathing resort is not liable for injury to a patron due to the slippery condition of the floor necessarily incidental to the use of the place for swimming or bathing purposes."

There is a splendid annotation on this subject in 118 A.L.R. 432. It is a matter of common knowledge which should be known to every intelligent person that walks adjacent to or leading to or surrounding a bathing pool generally have water constantly thrown upon them and are in a slippery condition. It should not be necessary to state that bathing pools generally have water in them and then when bathers jump into or dive into pools they naturally and necessarily splash water onto the walks adjacent to or surrounding such pools. A swimming pool used in connection with a hotel with walkways connecting such swimming pools and hotels are constantly used by the bathers going from the swimming pool to the hotel with wet bathing suits on and with bare feet. Naturally, such walks constantly have water upon them and are in a slippery condition.

The appellant alleges that she should be excused from not seeing the water on the concrete walk because she was facing the sun and was temporarily blinded. If she was so blinded that she could not see, she should not have walked upon a place and taken steps where it was impossible for her to see where she was going. Even if she was blinded, her complaint shows on its face that she knew the swimming pool was there and that the walk was adjacent to the pool and was used in connection with all of the facilities on the premises. No one will contend that the owner was responsible for the sun shining, or the direction in which it was shining.

Principles governing this case are set forth in an opinion of the Court by Mr. Justice Roberts in Miller v. Shull, Fla., 48 So. 2d 521, 522. That was a bath tub case where the bath tub was slippery and a guest slipped, fell and received serious injuries. She charged the owner with failure to remove from the bath tub a slippery substance before assigning the room to her. The Court said:

"* * * Plaintiff must have known, since it is a matter of common knowledge and one which most of us know through painful experience that a small amount of water in the bottom of a bath tub creates a slippery condition; and we think we may safely say that any reasonably prudent person makes at least a cursory examination of the condition of a bath tub before stepping into it. * * * "From the allegations of the declaration in this case, it appears that the plaintiff's injuries were the result of her own failure to exercise ordinary care, and under such circumstances the question of negligence was properly decided by the court as a matter of law."

We have considered all of the cases cited by the appellant and they are not applicable to the facts alleged in her complaint.

The owner of the premises such as described in the complaint in this case is not guilty of actionable negligence because he failed to remove a puddle of water from the concrete walk in question, or because he fails to keep such walk in a dry condition so that it would not be slippery.

The order of the Circuit Judge in dismissing the complaint and entering final judgment was without error. Affirmed.

SEBRING, C.J., ROBERTS, J., and HOCKER, Associate Justice, concur.


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Citator

Cited By (11 total)

  • Bowles v. Elkes Pontiac Co., 63 So. 2d 769 (Fla. 1952)
    …* The duly which the plaintiff owes to herself is to observe the obvious and apparent condition of the premises.” See also Miller v. Shull, Fla., 48 So. 2d 521; MacMillan v. Insurance Exchange Building, Fla., 58 So. 2d 163; Andrews v. Narber, Fla., 59 So. 2d 869. The allegation of the complaint that the drop-off was' 3 inches in depth and was 18 inches inside the showroom from the door entrance, made the dangerous condition more obvious than a % inch thickness of a rubber or leather mat. The allegation th…
  • Heps v. Burdine's, Inc., 69 So. 2d 340 (Fla. 1954)
    …Store Corp., 114 N.J.L. 286, 176 A. 386; Weinstein v. R. H. Macy and Company, 163 Misc. 61, 296 N.Y.S. 341; Jacob v. City of Pittsburg, 330 Pa. 587, 198 A. 639; O’Neill v. S. S. Kresge Company, 317 Mass. 768, 58 N.E. 2d 247; Andrews v. Narber, Fla., 59 So. 2d 869; Miller v. Shull, Fla., 48 So. 2d 521 and Foley v. Hialeah Race Course, Fla., 53 So. 2d 771. The judgment appealed from is therefore affirmed. Affirmed. ROBERTS, C. J, and SEBRING and MATHEWS, JJ, concur.…
  • Andrews v. Narber, 59 So. 2d 869 (Fla. 1952)
    …59 So. 2d 869 (1952) ANDREWS v. NARBER. Supreme Court of Florida, Special Division B. July 18, 1952. Butt and Akridge, Cocoa, for appellant. J. Thomas Gurney, Orlando, for appellee. MATHEWS, Justice. This is an appeal from a final judgment on the pleadings…

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