Slip and fall moves past summary disposition.

Byline: Thomas Franz

A Michigan Court of Appeals panel has affirmed a Macomb County Circuit Court ruling to deny a motion for summary disposition in a slip-and-fall case outside a restaurant.

In Livings v. Sage's Investment Group (MiLW No. 08-99603, 18 pages), a COA majority of Jane M. Beckering and Douglas B. Shapiro determined that a snow-covered parking lot was an unavoidable hazard for a waitress trying to enter her place of work.

"On the appellate level, I thought the unavoidability exception applied," said plaintiff's attorney Christopher R. Baratta. "My focus on this case was always that Donna Livings had to report to work. This was vital for her to feed her family."

Judge Jonathan Tukel concurred in part and dissented in part.

Case facts

On Feb. 21, 2014, there was a slip and fall in defendant's parking lot. The defendant leased a portion of a plaza on the premises at issue to Grand Dimitre's of Eastpointe Family Dining (Dimitre's).

Livings was a server at the restaurant for 10 years before this fall.

She arrived to the restaurant on the day of the fall at 5:50 a.m. to work the opening shift. She parked in a spot about 70 feet away from the rear entrance to the restaurant where the employees typically enter. Closer parking spots were snow-covered.

Livings testified that there was about 6 inches of packed snow on the parking lot cement. She said the snowplows failed to plow down to the cement and would leave a layer of snow that would get packed down by vehicles. The COA opinion stated that Livings described the lot as a "sheet of white ice."

Anthony Caramagno II, the owner of a snow removal company, testified that he plowed the lot as a favor to his friend, Jim Sage, the defendant's sole owner. However, records show Sage never asked Caramagno to salt the parking lot or sidewalk on the property in question from January to March 2014.

Livings testified that employees complained frequently about the state of the parking lot.

The COA's decision noted that another employee who was already at the restaurant when Livings arrived also testified that the lot was "a sheet of snow, ice and water," and that she had to "shimmy" her way to the entrance.

After taking three steps from her car, Livings fell and injured her lower back. She could not regain her balance, so she crawled across the lot to the front entrance, where the other worker let her in. The other worker testified Livings was soaking wet from the waist down.

Livings was diagnosed...