Last year, the Michigan Supreme Court overturned a decades old legal doctrine and it is having wide-reaching impacts on property owners and lessees—our snow & ice management firms. In its decision in a pair of consolidated cases (Kandil-Elsayed v F & E Oil, Inc and Pinsky v Kroger Co of Mich), the state’s high court did away with a legal doctrine known as “open and obvious”. Generally speaking, under this doctrine, a premises possessor (whether that is the landowner, land contract vendee, lessee, or other party with the right to possess the property) does not have a duty to warn individuals of potentially dangerous conditions on the premises if the condition is “open and obvious”. By overturning this doctrine, all potentially dangerous conditions—even though they are “open and obvious”—now require individuals to be warned.
Click HERE to read the advisory memo provided by MNLA’s Attorney.