Legal Question in Business Law in New York

Re: Duty to business invitees

Your personal injury premises liability case is remarkably similar to an Illinois case,

Ward v. K Mart Corp., 136 Ill. 2d 132 (1990) wherein the plaintiif sustained injury when he walked into a five-foot tall post close to the entrance while while he was leaving the store carrying a large mirror he had bought therein. The Ward v. K Mart Illinois court held that K Mart had breached its duty of care and had been negligent because K Mart should have foreseen that a customer could collide with the post near the door while carrying merchandise since that customer could easily become distracted and momentarily forget about the presence of that post while carrying the merchandise.

Thus, the Illinois court in the Ward v. K Mart Corp. held that K Mart had a duty, and breached that duty, to either warn the plaintiff about the post or otherwise protect the plaintiff from the danger of colliding with that post.

A criterion for establishing the duty of care is the extent to which a hazard is probable or foreseeable. It would seem that the

Ward v. K Mart case strengthens your argument that K Mart Corp. was on notice from the Ward case and therefore should have foreseen the danger that a customer carrying a large mirror could be injured by colliding with a pole. Therefore, whether or not K Mart breached a duty of care in placing the pole at that location, K Mart may have breached a duty of care to either assist the customer to carry the mirror or to warn and/or otherwise protect a customer carrying a large mirror from the store against the danger of colliding with such a pole.