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Are you on the Hook If you Don’t Shovel the Sidewalk of Your Columbus Home?
January 28th, 2009 categories: About Me?, Columbus News, For Home Sellers
There are few things more frustrating than trudging through the un-shoveled sidewalks and driveways of Columbus homes that are for sale during showings with buyers. Of course once you get in and find that the home is vacant and freezing, that’s not much fun either.
One thing I was just considering is that people really only walk down the street in the city. In the suburbs, aside from school kids going to a bus stop or the mailman, no one has any reason to walk down the street. On my street, people are going to and fro all day long. I just saw a guy walking down the middle of street with one of those 2-wheel grocery luggage carrier things.
I’m shoveling today because it feels like the right thing to do and because, truth be told, I kind of enjoy shoveling snow. I’ll leave it up to you if you want to shovel after reading this. (remember, I’m no lawyer and this is not legal advice!)
If you do the right thing and shovel the snow on your walk and driveway, are you opening yourself up for a lawsuit from a slip-and-fall passer-by? The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that property owners have no duty “to eliminate natural accumulations of ice and snow from sidewalks” or even to warn of the dangers.
The court went on to say,”Living in Ohio during the winter has its inherent dangers. . . . Perhaps [the home owners in the case] should have shoveled and salted the sidewalk as a matter of courtesy to their guests. However, we find that Ohio law imposed no such obligation.”
In fact, all of the justices agreed that “everyone is assumed to appreciate the risks associated with natural accumulations of ice and snow and, therefore, everyone is responsible to protect himself or herself.”
I think the court probably felt their hands were tied a little. Any other ruling would have opened the floodgates for an avalanche of slip-and-fall lawsuits. They went on to say, “To hold otherwise would subject Ohio homeowners to the perpetual threat of [seasonal] civil liability any time a visitor sets foot on the premises.”
The Key, then, turns on the use of the phrase ‘natural accumulation’. If you shovel and create a big heap of snow, that is an -un-natural accumulation of snow. What if under that snow is a big branch that turns someone’s ankle when they step in the big man-made pile? Yeah, you guessed it.
Walker Evans
February 6th, 2009
Ann Fisher begs to differ.