New Trial Ordered Based on Application of Open and Obvious Doctrine in Premises Liability Case

In the case of Janik v. Zoological Society of Philadelphia, No. 1590 EDA 2024 (Pa. Super. April 22, 2025 Panella, P.J.E., Lane, J., and Stevens, P.J.E.) (Op. by Panella, P.J.E.), the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled that the trial court correctly granted a new trial after recognizing its error in failing to instruct the jury on the open and obvious doctrine where the trial evidence created a genuine issue of material fact as to whether a reasonable person would have recognized an architectural feature as a potential hazard.

According to the Opinion, the Plaintiff was walking in the Philadelphia Zoo’s Big Cat Falls exhibit when his left foot struck the bottom of a decorative boulder, which allegedly caused him to fall and sustain injuries.

The Plaintiff filed suit alleging that the Zoo was negligent in placing the decorative boulder adjacent to the walkway because it created a dangerous or defective condition.

The Defendant’s pre-trial Motion for Summary Judgment asserting that the boulder was an open and obvious condition was denied. At trial, the trial court denied the Zoo’s Motion for a nonsuit on the same grounds. The jury then returned a verdict in favor of the Plaintiff.

On appeal, the Zoo asserted that the trial court erred in denying the Motion for Summary Judgment and denying the Motion for a Nonsuit, and in excluding jury instructions on the open and obvious doctrine. Other issues were also raised in the post-trial motions.

In its post-trial Opinion, the trial court felt that a new trial should be granted given its own errors, in part, in failing to admit certain evidence and in failing to instruct the jury on the open and obvious doctrine.

Relative to the issue of the open and obvious doctrine, the Superior Court agreed that there were issues of fact presented at trial that should have compelled the trial court to instruct the jury on that doctrine.

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


Source: The Legal Intelligencer State Appellate Case Alert, www.Law.com (May 6, 2025).