Court Refuses To Hold Sidewalk Defects Not Trivial Or De Minimis

A cold and snowy winter has wreaked havoc on many sidewalks throughout our region. Soon, many of these sidewalks will experience shifting and cracking this harsh winter season, creating a potential hazard for pedestrians as a consequence thereof.

Understanding Trivial Defects in Sidewalk Liability

Earlier this year, in Reinoso v. Heritage Warminster SPE LLC, 2015 PA Super 8 (Jan, 14, 2015), the Superior Court of Pennsylvania discussed what constitutes a trivial or de minimis defect in a sidewalk absolving a property owner from liability as a matter of law.

In 2009, 60-year-old Guadalupe Reinoso was walking hand-in-hand with her 5-year-old granddaughter on a sidewalk in a shopping center owned by Heritage Warminster SPE LLC when they both tripped and fell on a raised section of the sidewalk, the opinion said...

Trial Court Dismisses the Case

Reinoso subsequently sued Heritage, among others, for the injuries she sustained in the fall. Heritage filed a motion for summary judgment asserting any defect in the sidewalk was, at most, trivial or de minimis...

Superior Court Reviews Trial Court Ruling

Reinoso appealed the trial court's ruling to the state Superior Court. After a divided panel affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment, the Superior Court granted reargument on an en banc basis...

Business Invitee Duty and Legal Standards

The Superior Court in Reinoso, before addressing the specific issue of whether the trial court erred as a matter of law in granting summary judgment based upon a "trivial defect," citing to Sections 341A, 343 and 343A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts...

Court Acknowledges Additional Evidence

While the Superior Court agreed with the trial court's determination that there was no material fact at issue regarding the height difference... it believed that Reinoso presented additional facts that the trial court did not acknowledge in its opinion...

Lessons Learned

The Superior Court's ruling in Reinoso very well may be a situation where the plaintiff "wins the battle but loses the war," so to speak. The plaintiff in Reinoso has been given the opportunity to have her case tried before a jury of her peers...

Reprinted with permission from the March 17, 2015 edition of The Legal Intelligencer © 2015 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. For information, contact 877-257-3382, reprints@alm.com or visit www.almreprints.com.

Alan Nochumson