MI Supreme Court

**maxx** · May-29-10, 10:15 AM

http://www.examiner.com/x-18664-Detr...d-fall-damages

Arent't people who have sidewalks in front of their houses subject to suit if they don't keep the sidewalk ice free?

Gee, ya get the idea that our Supreme Court is in the pocket of businesses.

**Jimaz** · May-29-10, 11:20 AM

So is everyone supposed to carry their own rock salt everywhere they go? Who was supposed to salt the funeral home's parking lot if not the funeral home itself?

**gazhekwe** · May-29-10, 11:41 AM

Hmmm, will I have to pay back the money the hotel insurance company paid for my wonderful black ice experience?

**oladub** · May-29-10, 12:08 PM

The ruling might be narrow. It doesn't exempt anyone from shoveling snow. Black ice is just very difficult to see. Sometimes we have to be on it to appreciate it.

My wife broke her wrist walking on a church sidewalk. This was 10 years before this ruling. Maybe she could have sued but didn't. She did call the church though to complain about the ice and suggested they should salt that spot to prevent further injuries.

I have slid off a road on black ice. I had to be towed up from the fence that caught my car. It was so slippery, the wrecker couldn't turn around. Should I have sued the State as it was a State highway? I didn't because I'm sure the salt trucks were doing everything they could to keep up with the freezing rain.

In either of the above anecdotes, it was winter and if we personally didn't want to take such chances, we should have moved in Florida.

**maxx** · June-13-10, 05:34 PM

"...Janson countered that the funeral home should have warned about the possibility of ice but the court’s ruling said freezing temperatures, snowfall, and other wintery conditions were a natural warning. They felt when these conditions occur it is incumbent on customers to be extra cautious."

I don't see anything about it's being incumbent on the business to at least throw some salt on their parking lot. And it's a funeral home. So on cold winter days we should just not go to a funeral home we have contracted with because we might get hurt in their parking lot which they have no responsibility to clean?

I'm going to try to remember Sajewski Funeral Home on West Warren, a place to avoid.

**Jimaz** · June-13-10, 06:22 PM

Not to mention that funeral home visitors are often elderly and frail and have difficulty walking under normal circumstances and are more susceptible to broken bones from falls.

Places like that should spread salt routinely during freezing weather. What were they thinking?!

**Jimaz** · June-13-10, 06:30 PM

The only way I could make sense of this would be if it were one of those rare cases when it's so cold that even salt wouldn't have melted the ice. But I would think if that were a factor it would have been mentioned in the article. It wasn't.

**Gannon** · June-14-10, 09:55 AM

You can be sure after this legal fiasco that the Sajewski Family's Funeral Home will be the most-thoroughly salted and maintained parking lot and approach sidewalk of any in the Metro area.

I knew the Sajewski's from St. Alphonsus, they were a fine and upstanding family. This sort of accident could happen anywhere, to anyone.

I am glad they didn't get punished by the courts for not being able to keep up with Mother Nature's periodic obstacle course.

Cheers