Slip and Fall on a Patch of Ice In a Parking Lot

In McQuain v. Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, United States District Court, ED Mich, Docket No. 96-72142 (June 22, 1998), the plaintiff fell on a patch of ice that could not be seen at a mall parking lot. In McQuain, the parking lot was salted seven hours before the accident occurred. The court granted summary disposition in favor of the defendant on the basis that the plaintiff did not indicate that the mall's procedure for removing snow was unreasonable and that the plaintiff did not cite facts why the mall should have had notice that there was a patch of ice in the parking lot. However, McQuain is both an unpublished case and a federal case and the instant case is a state court case. The Court is not bound in any sense to follow unpublished opinions of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, but may adopt that court's rationale. Jodway v. Kennametal, Inc, 207 Mich App 622, 630-631; 525 NW2d 883 (1994).