Francis v. Showcase Cinema Eastgate

In Francis v. Showcase Cinema Eastgate, 155 Ohio App.3d 412, 2003 Ohio 6507, 801 N.E.2d 535, the court determined that under Chambers, an OBBC violation raises a genuine issue of material fact as to the landowner's duty and prevents a defendant from asserting the "open and obvious" defense to eliminate the existence of a duty or breach of duty. The court explained: "While the Supreme Court of Ohio has reaffirmed the principle that a landowner owes no duty to protect an invitee from open and obvious dangers, it has also held that violations of the OBBC are evidence that the owner has breached a duty to the invitee. In this case, defendant suggests that this court should simply ignore the evidence of the OBBC violation, but we believe it would be improper to do so. To completely disregard the OBBC violation as a nullity under the open-and-obvious doctrine would be to ignore the holding in Chambers and to render the provisions of the OBBC without legal significance. We hold, then, that the evidence of the OBBC violation raised a genuine issue of material fact regarding defendant's duty and breach of duty, and that summary judgment was improperly granted. Id. at P10.