Court Finds That Determination if Plaintiff Was an Invitee, Licensee, or Trespasser is for the Jury

In the case Martin v. Cable Services Co., Inc., No. CV-2025-00988 (C.P. Lyc. Co. April 23, 2026 Carlucci, J.), the court denied Preliminary Objections filed by various Defendants in a premises liability case involving the death of the Plaintiff. One of the Defendants involved was charged with criminal homicide.

According to the Opinion, an incident took place at the business premises of Cable Services Co., Inc. which resulted in the death of the Plaintiff’s decedent. As a result of that incident and death, one of the Defendants was charged with criminal homicide. No more details regarding the facts of the incident were provided in the Opinion.

This Opinion addressed various Preliminary Objections filed by certain Defendants against the Complaint. The Defendants essentially asserted that the Plaintiff’s reference to a corporate safety manual in the Complaint was insufficient to establish any duty owed to the decedent because the decedent was not an employee of Cable Services on the date of the incident.

The Defendants additionally asserted that the allegations in the Plaintiff’s Complaint failed to establish that the decedent was a public invitee to whom the Defendants owed a duty of care.

Judge William P. Carlucci
Lycoming County

Judge William P. Carlucci noted that he was declining to determine whether or not the Defendants owed a duty of care to the decedent at this Preliminary Objections stage. The court noted that, generally speaking, in premises liability cases, the determination of whether an individual is an invitee, licensee, or trespasser is a question of fact for the jury.

The court also noted that the issues of foreseeability with respect to the harm suffered by the decedent is also ordinarily a question of fact for the jury.

As such, the various Preliminary Objections filed by the Defendant were overruled.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.


Source: The Legal Intelligencer Common Pleas Case Alert, www.Law.com (May 28, 2026).