Court holds that woman who accompanied buyer to listed property wasn't a "business invitee"
Cathy Rose accompanied her fiancé when he inspected a property he had just put an offer on. The fiancé was returning to the property to retrieve his ladder, with Rose, when Rose stepped off a "hidden" step and suffered injury. The Court held that the allegedly hidden step was in fact an "open and obvious" hazard, but that in any event, Rose wasn't on the property for a purpose "directly tied to the owner's commercial business interests." Therefore, the owner's duty to Rose was only marginally greater than it would be to a trespasser.