 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Monohon v. Antilla10/25/2005
Raymond Michael Monohon, II appeals from a judgment that Liisa Antilla was not negligent for his injuries when he fell through a deck while visiting a tenant in a building Antilla owned. We hold that the trial court should have given an instruction on Antilla's duty under the tenant's lease to maintain the deck; that the instruction based on Antilla's duty to warn of latent defects was improper; and that the trial court should have admitted the rental agreement in the evidence it sent to the jury. We reverse and remand for a new trial.
FACTS
In June 1999, Raymond Monohon visited Keith Buchanan, a tenant in a building Antilla owned. The building had a second floor wooden deck running the length of the building that was separated by partitions for each individual tenant's use. The deck had 16 panels of several two-by-four slats laid on wooden ledgers nailed into the wooden beams supporting the deck.
The rental agreement between Buchanan and Antilla provided, in language similar to that of the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act, that Antilla would '{m}aintain all structural components in good repair' and '{k}eep common areas reasonably clean and safe from defects increasing the hazards of fire or accident.' Ex. 54, RCW 59.18.060(2)-(3). Antilla indicated at trial that she understood that her responsibility was to keep the structure safe. Buchanan indicated that he believed it was not his duty to maintain the deck structure. Buchanan and Antilla gave conflicting testimony regarding whether Buchanan notified Antilla of problems with the deck before Monohon's visit.
Earlier on the day of Monohon's visit, a guest of Buchanan's next door neighbor fell on Buchanan's portion of the deck, knocking out three or four of the wooden slats and leaving a hole in the deck. When Monohon walked onto the deck panel containing the hole later that day, the panel collapsed and Monohon fell 10 feet to the concrete walkway below. Monohon alleged that he sustained back, hip, and shoulder injuries as a result of the fall.
The parties disputed the exact cause of the deck collapse at trial. Monohon's expert witness testified that the failure of the wooden ledger below the deck caused the collapse. Antilla's expert testified there was insufficient evidence to determine the cause of the accident conclusively but that either the wooden ledger failed or the deck slats failed due to the hole the neighbor's guest caused earlier in the day.
Monohon sued Antilla alleging that she negligently failed to maintain the structural components of the deck in reasonably good repair and for failing to inspect and repair the deck before the accident. The trial court allowed Monohon to amend the pleadings to include a contract claim but refused to give an instruction relating to any claim under the rental agreement.
At trial, Monohon presented his case as a negligence action and proposed instructions based on a duty to repair arising out of the rental agreement and common law. Proposed instruction 11 read: Liisa Antilla, the property owner, owed her tenants and their guests, including Mike Monohon, a duty to exercise ordinary care to maintain the outdoor deck structure in a reasonably safe condition.
Clerk's Papers (CP) at 49.
Construing Monohon's proposed instruction as a new legal theory based on breach of contract, the trial court rejected it. The court indicated that the landlord's potential duty arising out of the landlord-tenant agreement was 'a matter that could be addressed by the {c}court by a directed verdict or by summary judgment' and if the jury came back with a defense verdict on liability, the court might send them out for
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 Washington Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|