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Okay. Let's just say that this prospective buyer - let's call her, "Prospective Buyer" - calls you up, and asks if she can see a house that's currently under construction. You tell her that you don't know if there's going to be an Open House, but that if she wants to take a look, she can go in through the garage. You WHAT?!?!?
Are you INSANE? You know what this genius is going to do, don't you? Three weeks later, without calling you or the listing agent, she's going to drive by, and talk the builder into letting her stand on a bucket to get into the house since they didn't finish the stairs yet. Then, when it's time to go and she's suddenly in a hurry, she'll once again step on the upside down bucket, this time without help from the builder, and of course she'll slip, fall and hurt herself. And then what? C'mon, Realtors! Lay down your bets! Does this Shining Beacon of Brilliance:
a) sheepishly crawl away, embarrassed and ashamed that she did something so obviously stupid?
b) brush off the dirt, set her arm back in the socket and chalk it up to bad luck?
c) sue you, your company, the builder, and everyone else who has a pocket deep enough to reach her greedy little hand into?
I suppose I've stacked the deck a wee bit, and you're able to ascertain that Patricia Al-Sorghali, aka "Prospective Buyer" did "c," tried to sue everyone and their Broker for her act of clumsy stupidity. But folks, this story has a happy ending, and a surprise ending as well, since many of us cynics in the crowd would have predicted a huge pay-out, since it seems as if the stupider the act, the more a deep pocket has to pay out. You spill coffee on your lap? McDonald's made it too hot! Pay up! Working in that vein, one would have predicted the opposite of what happened: the Court actually denied this litigious lame-o her claim, and ruled, rightly, that an upside-down bucket constituted an "open and obvious" danger so there was no duty to warn the Prospective Buyer about the danger posed by using a bucket as a stair. I believe that was filed under, "DUH." The Prospective Buyer appealed, of course. After all, someone was going to pay for her stupid move, and surely that someone wasn't going to be her! And guess what? The Appeals Court affirmed the lower court!
Here's what they said, and the italics, of course, are mine: Ohio law does not require an owner or occupier of land to warn invitees to the property about dangers which are "open and obvious" because a reasonable person should be expected to discover the possibly dangerous situation and take appropriate action.
Wow. Here's where the top my head exploded. The Court basing a decision on what a reasonable person should do? This is a very, very good thing. So, okay. For every OJ Simpson and Robert Blake that a jury decides to set free, remind yourself of this case, where justice was served to Patricia Al-Sorghali, in the form of her hospital bills, served chilled, under an upside down bucket.
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