Jeffrey L. Oster recently explored Pennsylvania’s trivial defect doctrine for members of the Pennsylvania Bar Association in the summer edition of Civil Litigation Update. The trivial defect doctrine’s provenance can be traced back to 1941 and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court case, Davis v. Potter, which generally established that an insignificant defect in a walkway does not make the possessor of the premises liable for its presence. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court clarified the application of the doctrine in two subsequent cases — Henn v. City of Pittsburgh, 1941 and Breskin v. 535 Fifth Ave., 1955 – when the court determined that “even before a jury trial, trivial defects must be determined considering all circumstances of a specific case, except where the defect is obviously trivial…” Jeff expressed that, currently, there does not appear to be a clear standard used by Pennsylvania courts to determine if a defect is trivial in nature or, if a jury should make that determination. He opined that, “despite more than 80 years of case law pertaining to trivial defects, Pennsylvania courts do not clearly articulate what the trivial defect standard is and when summary judgment, therefore, should be granted. Out of fairness to property owners, a decision should be made by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to make a firm determination of this standard so that property owners and municipalities alike can assess when repairs are needed or [when] they will potentially be subject to litigation.” See below to read this article:
Summer Law Clerk Brendan Teufel contributed to this article.
