Cornelis DeHeer, Appellants v. the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Respondents

Summary

The Washington Supreme Court reversed a judgment notwithstanding the verdict that had nullified a jury award to a Home Show patron who slipped on paper while descending a debris-littered exit stairway at the Seattle National Guard Armory. The court held that, because the defendants' failure to keep the premises reasonably safe breached a duty owed to the plaintiff as a business invitee, her use of the stairway despite known litter did not constitute assumption of risk as a matter of law; whether she acted as an ordinarily prudent person in light of the alternatives open to her was a question for the jury. The court also declined to consider the defendants' challenges to refused jury instructions because they were unsupported by argument or cited authority, and it remanded with directions to enter judgment on the verdict.