Owner Owes Duty of Extraordinary Care to Elevator Passengers

Facts: Two tenant employees were trapped and repeatedly bounced up and down uncontrollably for almost an hour and a half in a malfunctioning elevator in the office building where they worked. The office building was owned and managed by a commercial property management company. Both employees needed medical attention, including surgery, for injuries they had suffered from the bouncing. They sued the property management company, claiming that it had negligently maintained the elevator.

Numerous witnesses testified during the trial that the elevator malfunctioned on a regular basis and that they had reported this to the property management company more than once. The property management company's records showed that the elevators were not leveling, they became stuck on various floors, and people were repeatedly trapped in them. However, the property management company still asked the court for a judgment in its favor without a trial, contending that the employees had failed to present any evidence that it knew about any defect that may have caused the elevator to malfunction.

The trial court granted the company's request because it found that: (1) the property management company had produced evidence showing that it had an elevator inspection and repair program; and (2) the employees' evidence did not prove the cause of the malfunction, that the property management company knew about the elevator problem or was put on notice that the elevator was defective during any of the elevator inspections, or that the elevator inspections and maintenance were performed negligently. The trial court further found that the property management company “had inspection and repair procedures in place and used all reasonable precautions to protect its passengers from harm.” The employees appealed.

Decision: The appeals court reversed the trial court's ruling.

Reasoning: The appeals court stated that the owner or manager of an office building equipped with an elevator that is operated for taking tenants and their employees and customers to and from the various floors is not a “common carrier,” like a train or hotel, in the sense that it is bound to serve the general public. However, it has the same duty to protect passengers in the elevator as common carriers have to protect their passengers or guests. This duty requires elevator-equipped building owners and managers to exercise extraordinary diligence to protect its passengers.

The appeals court noted that, despite the duty of extraordinary diligence, owners are not insurers of safety against every possible source of danger regarding the elevator. Rather, they are bound to use all reasonable precautions “as human judgment and foresight are capable of, to make the passengers' journey safe and comfortable.” To be liable for elevator injuries, a building owner must have had some knowledge of the threat to the passengers.

Thus, owners or managers of a building with an elevator, like a common carrier, have to exercise extraordinary diligence—that is, “extreme care and caution which very prudent and thoughtful persons exercise under the same or similar circumstances to protect the lives of their passengers,” the appeals court said. Moreover, an owner and manager could be held liable for even slight negligence in maintaining an elevator in a case like this one.

The appeals court noted that, here, the witnesses' testimony that they had reported problems with the elevator, the evidence showing repeated incidents with the elevators, and the property management company's records presented questions as to whether the property management company knew or should have known that the elevator was dangerous and failed or neglected to take the proper precautions to prevent or mitigate the employees' injuries. Because a jury trial was necessary to determine the answers to those questions, the trial court's grant of a judgment without a trial in favor of the owner and the property management company was inappropriate.

• Beach v. B. F. Saul Property Co., March 2010