Slip, Trip and Fall Injuries in Ohio

Ohio still sorts visitors into invitees, licensees and trespassers, and the visitor's status sets the duty owed. Business invitees (people invited for a purpose that benefits the owner) are owed ordinary care to keep the premises reasonably safe and a warning of hidden (latent) dangers. Licensees and trespassers are owed only a duty not to injure them by willful, wanton or reckless conduct. Under the open-and-obvious doctrine, an owner owes no duty to lawful visitors regarding dangers that are open and obvious.

Ohio follows a 'natural accumulation' rule from court decisions. A homeowner has no common-law duty to remove or make less hazardous a natural accumulation of ice and snow on private sidewalks or walkways, or to warn visitors of its dangers. Owners of business premises ordinarily owe business invitees no duty to remove natural accumulations of ice and snow from private walks or to warn of them; the Supreme Court has recognized liability where the owner had notice that the natural accumulation created a condition substantially more dangerous than invitees should have anticipated from general conditions in the area.

A city's legislative authority has care, supervision and control of public streets and sidewalks, and the statute says the city's liability or immunity for failing to carry out those duties is decided under the political subdivision immunity law. That law makes political subdivisions liable for negligent failure to keep 'public roads' in repair, and defines public roads as public roads, highways, streets, avenues, alleys and bridges; sidewalks are not listed in that definition. A city may require owners of abutting lots to build or repair sidewalks and, if they do not, do the work and assess the cost against the property; these assessment statutes do not say in words that the abutting owner is liable to an injured pedestrian. No prior-written-notice requirement appears in the immunity chapter.

Claims against a city, county, township, school district or other political subdivision: the immunity chapter (reviewed) has no written notice-of-claim step before suing; the lawsuit must be filed within two years after the claim arises (or any shorter period that applies). Punitive damages are not allowed, insurance and other collateral benefits are deducted from the award, and damages that are not actual losses (such as pain and suffering) are capped at $250,000 per person except in wrongful death cases. Political subdivisions are immune except in the situations the statute lists, such as negligent driving by employees, negligent failure to keep public roads in repair, and physical defects in government buildings caused by employee negligence.

Modified comparative fault (51% bar). An injured person can recover as long as their own fault was not greater than the combined fault of all other persons; damages are reduced by the injured person's percentage of fault. A person found more than 50% at fault recovers nothing.

An action for bodily injury must be filed within two years after the cause of action accrues, which is generally when the injury occurs. For injuries from exposure to certain substances (such as hazardous chemicals, prescription drugs or medical devices, or asbestos), the clock starts when the person learns, or reasonably should have learned, that the injury is related to the exposure.