§ 31-19 Premises Liability - Duty Owed by Merchant to Invitee - in General

• Library: South Carolina Requests to Charge - Civil (SCBar) (2016 Ed.)

§ 31-19 Premises Liability - Duty Owed by Merchant to Invitee - In General

Storekeeper liability is founded upon the duty of care a possessor of property owes to an invitee. Generally, a merchant owes an invitee the duty of exercising reasonable or ordinary care for his safety and is liable for any injury resulting from the breach of this duty. Reasonable care means that degree of care which a reasonably prudent merchant would exercise under the same or similar circumstances.

The degree of care required to be exercised by a merchant with respect to an invitee is commensurate with the particular circumstances involved, including the age and capacity of the invitee. This duty is an active or affirmative duty. It includes refraining from any act which may make the invitee's use of the premises dangerous or result in injury to him. The precise manner in which the injuries might have occurred does not have to be foreseeable. It is sufficient that there is a greater than ordinary danger of injury and that the sustaining of the injury was within this range.

A merchant who invites the public to his premises is not an insurer of the safety of a customer in his store. His duty is to exercise due care to keep the premises in reasonably safe condition. Furthermore, he...