Giving Incomplete Directions Within House Might Trigger Liability - First Department Recent Decision

The recent Appellate Division, First Division case of Rugeri v. Bannister is an odd premises liability case that concerns a vistor's injury based on his unfamiliarity of a residential home.  The plaintiff was visiting a house that his friend borrowed and injured himself when he sought to use the bathroom but entered the cellar door instead.  The First Department reinstated the complaint against the defendant who borrowed the house based on her somewhat incomplete directions as to the layout of the house.  The rule concerned in this case is as follows:

"An . . . occupant of premises, who undertakes to direct a person unfamiliar with the surroundings to a particular part thereof, may be liable for active negligence in failing to give specific instructions, where the physical arrangement is such that a misunderstanding of the directions given would cause such person to enter a dangerous place"

Comments

[Bill Altreuter]

First, haha, the defendant's name was Bannister. Second, it seems to me that there is a plethora of similar cases out there with essentially the same facts-- the dissent lists a couple, but I'm sure that I've had this come up, and seen even more. Something must have been funny about the record here, because I'm with the dissent on this one.