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Directed verdict affirmed in negligence suit involving double fatal fire
TRACEY BLAIR
Legal News Reporter
Published: June 29, 2016
The 11th District Court of Appeals recently affirmed a Portage County trial judge’s decision to dismiss a negligence suit filed against a landlord after two people died in a house fire.
Case summary shows that on the afternoon of March 19, 2009, a fire occurred at an Atwater home owned by Todd Bartlett.
Marci Anne Piltz and her boyfriend, Dave Smith, died of smoke inhalation. The victims were friends with Bartlett, who was at work when the blaze occurred.
Piltz’s father, retired firefighter Edward Rudd, sued Bartlett on behalf of his daughter’s children. Rudd claimed Bartlett failed to properly maintain the house and should have been aware smoke detectors in the home were malfunctioning.
Testimony from the May 2015 jury trial showed that Smith had lived on and off at the house since 2005, but had moved out a week before the incident after a fight with the landlord.
Bartlett testified that although he was unaware the couple was in the home the day the fire occurred, they were not trespassing.
The fire was declared undetermined, but officials said mishandling of smoking materials was the likely cause.
Bartlett said he believed the smoke detectors were working at the time of the blaze, adding that he changed the batteries every fall.
Bartlett claimed he did not act willfully, wantonly or recklessly and owed no duty to maintain a smoke detector.
At the end of Rudd’s case, the trial court granted Bartlett’s motion for a directed verdict, and dismissed the case.
“… Rudd claims that Smith was a tenant and as his invited guest, the legal duty owed to Piltz was the same as a tenant,” appellate Judge Diane V. Grendell wrote in her majority opinion.
Grendell noted that the Ohio Supreme Court has held that a landlord owes a tenant’s guest the same duty that it owes a tenant to keep the common area safe and sanitary (R.C. 5321.04(A)(3).
At issue was whether Smith was Bartlett’s tenant at the time of the fire.
“In this case, it is clear that there was not a `typical’ landlord-tenant agreement, such as a written contract requiring the payment of rent every month,” Grendell wrote. “However, according to the Fire Marshal report, Smith `stayed in the house and paid rent when he had money.’ “
The panel found there was little evidence proving Bartlett was truly Smith’s landlord, but even if he was a landlord, he was not negligent.
Grendell noted that several courts have rejected negligence claims against landlords in cases involving smoke detectors due to proximate cause issues.
Appellate judges Cynthia Westcott Rice and Colleen Mary O’Toole concurred.
The case is cited Rudd v. Bartlett, 2016-Ohio-3403.