Issue: Whether, in Ohio, if a landlord was negligent and therefore liable for a tenant=s injuries, does that preclude summary judgment?
| Area of Law: | Personal Injury & Negligence, Real Estate Law |
| Keywords: | Landlord's negligence; Tenant's injuries; Summary judgment |
| Jurisdiction: | Ohio |
| Cited Cases: | None |
| Cited Statutes: | Ohio Rev. Code '' 5321.01 to .19; Ohio Rev. Code Ann. ' 5321.04(A)(2) |
| Date: | 01/01/2001 |
Ohio=s legislature saw fit to impose statutory obligations on landlords when it enacted the Ohio Landlord and Tenant Act, Ohio Rev. Code ” 5321.01 to .19. Under the law, a landlord is under a duty to A[m]ake all repairs and do whatever is reasonably necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition.@ Ohio Rev. Code Ann. ‘ 5321.04(A)(2) (West 1994).
Ohio=s courts, interpreting the statute, have ruled that the statute affected the common-law landlord-tenant relationship. The statute Aimposed upon the landlord a series of specific statutory duties which arise as a matter of law whenever the parties enter into a rental agreement.@ Sherman v. Pearson, 110 Ohio App. 3d 70, 74 (1996) (emphasis added). The duties imposed on landlords by the statute have a bearing on a common-law action sounding in negligence such as the present action. Breach of a statutory duty constitutes negligence per se, and the plaintiff may rely heavily on the landlord=s noncompliance with statutory duties to prove the landlord=s negligence. Id. at 74-75. Accord Sikora v. Wenzel, 88 Ohio St. 3d 493 (2000).
Moreover, the duties imposed by the statute are nondelegable. Strayer v. Lindeman, 68 Ohio St. 2d 32, 36 (1981). Thus, the statute created another exception to the general rule that a landlord employer is not liable for the negligence of an independent contractor. Rooted in the principle that a duty assumed gratuitously or contractually may not be delegated, the rule is settled […]