ST. LOUIS – The management company and owner of a Courtyard Marriott has been denied a request for summary judgment by a federal court in a negligence suit.
On April 25, U.S. Magistrate Judge David D. Noce denied Midas Hospitality LLC and Midas St. Peter's motion for summary judgment in a negligence claim filed by Catherine Fowler.
According to the ruling, Fowler alleged that she injured her left hip and femur after falling on ice as a guest at the Courtyard Marriott St. Peters in December 2016.
The defendants contended that "the hotel’s chief engineer applied ice melt or salt to the hotel walkway, in an effort to make the walkway safe," the ruling states. However, Fowler alleged the hotel was responsible to ensure that "all sidewalks and stairways are clear of ice and snow by using sand or salt as needed,” the ruling states.
Noce denied the motion for summary judgment, finding that the Midas defendants failed to meet "their burden to establish as a matter of law that there was a natural accumulation of ice or snow, or what the condition of the walkway was at the time of plaintiff’s fall," the ruling states.
"This court cannot say as a matter of law that defendant did not have actual or constructive notice of the ice on the sidewalk. The question of whether defendants knew or should have known of the ice is a question for the jury, who can decide whether an ordinarily careful person would monitor the walkway after salting it, such that defendants should have known of any ice," Noce wrote.
On the evening of the alleged incident, Fowler, a guest at the hotel, claims that she fell on a walkway on the outside of the hotel. According to the ruling, her brother, who left the lobby of the hotel prior to Fowler, did notice that the walkway was wet and slipped on the sidewalk but did not fall. The plaintiff alleged she did not see any type of salt or ice melt on the walkway at the time of the alleged incident. Fowler needed surgery as a result of her injuries.