Heins v. Webster County

552 N.W. 2d 51 (1996)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P made plans to visit D's hospital. P claims he was there to make plans to coordinate his playing Santa at the hospital for Christmas. D claims that in fact, P was there merely to make a social visit with his daughter who was the director of nursing. While exiting the main door of the hospital P fell on accumulated snow and ice and injured his hip. P sued D for negligence for failure to warn of the existence of a dangerous condition, allowing the ice and snow to accumulate and in failing to remove the ice and snow. The court found that D was a licensee at the time of the accident as he was there to visit his daughter and thus D did not act willfully or wantonly or fail to warn of known hidden dangers unobservable to P. D thus got the judgment under the landowner's duty of care to a licensee. P appealed; D should have been held to a duty of reasonable care as D was an invitee and social guest.