Sommers Schwartz attorney Michael Cunningham filed a premises liability lawsuit for a Livingston County woman who suffered severe fractures in both bones of her lower left leg after slipping on black ice in her apartment complex’s parking lot.
The plaintiff was a tenant at an apartment complex. On December 18, 2025, she walked from her unit through the parking lot to reach the complex’s dumpsters to dispose of trash. The walkway to the dumpsters, which also served as a tenant parking area, had not been salted or treated for ice. The plaintiff slipped on black ice and fell.
The complaint alleges the apartment complex’s management was negligent in maintaining the parking lot and dumpster access route. It failed to inspect the area for hazardous conditions, apply salt or ice-melting treatments despite prevailing winter weather, and ensure that tenants could reach the shared trash facilities without crossing a dangerous surface. Because the dumpsters required tenants to traverse the parking lot, the landlord’s failure to address the ice put every tenant making that trip at risk.
The injuries from the fall were severe. The plaintiff sustained an open comminuted fracture of the left distal tibia and fibula; both bones of the lower leg broke and shattered into multiple fragments, with the bone breaking through the skin. Surgeons performed an open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) to repair the fractures, realigning the broken bones and securing them with five screws and a rod running from her knee to her ankle. The impact also damaged surrounding nerves, muscles, and soft tissue. She required hospitalization and surgery and faces the likelihood of further medical treatment in the future. The injuries have left her with scarring, diminished strength and range of motion, chronic pain, lasting disability, and significant emotional distress, along with a greatly reduced ability to engage in the normal activities of daily life.
Michigan law imposes specific obligations on landlords to maintain common areas in a condition fit for the use tenants intend to make of them. Michigan’s Landlord and Tenant Relationships Act (MCL 554.139) requires that parking lots and walkways be kept free from hazardous accumulations of ice and snow. The complaint alleges the apartment complex violated that statute, as well as its general duty of care, by leaving the walkway to the dumpsters untreated. Salting to prevent ice formation is one of the most basic steps a property owner can take to protect tenants during Michigan winters; the complaint alleges none was taken here.
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