Vebr v. Culp
Annotate this CasePlaintiff Tomas Vebr was employed by a painting contractor which contracted with defendants Gary and Georgia Culp to paint the interior of their home. An hour into working in the Culps’ home, Vebr fell 12 to 15 feet from an extension ladder provided by the painting contractor and was injured. Vebr sued the Culps for negligence and premises liability based on allegations that his fellow painters were negligent. The trial court granted the Culps’ motion for summary judgment. The Court of Appeal affirmed: the undisputed facts showed the cause of Vebr’s fall was a mystery. There was no evidence showing what had occurred or that Vebr was free from negligence himself. On this record, there was no reasonable and logical inference anyone else present in the residence at the time of the accident was negligent. “Someone might have been negligent, but we do not and likely never will know whether that was the case. The trial court did not err by concluding that the evidence before the court did not show all three conditions of the res ipsa loquitur presumption were satisfied.”
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