If you fall on icy ground, the main reason is the cold temperatures. Nevertheless, in such a case, the question arises as to whether the said subsoil had been adequately secured against the risk of falling by the owner of the same – i.e. cleared and strewn. A civil case before the Ebersberg District Court, in which a customer had sued the operating company of a Poinger gas station, revolved around the latter. Because the woman fell on their property at the end of November, she is now demanding damages and pain and suffering. But the court rejected this claim.
According to a press release from the district court, the case was as follows: After the plaintiff had her car washed, she parked it in a parking lot and walked back to the entrance of the car wash belonging to the gas station. There she wanted to draw the attention of an employee to an alleged damage to her vehicle. However, this did not happen, because on the way there the plaintiff fell and fractured the neck of her femur. In court, the woman now argued that the accident occurred because of a non-spread, icy spot on the gas station site.
The evidence shows that the employees have fulfilled their duty
However, she was unsuccessful. “The District Court of Ebersberg came to the conclusion that the defendant’s culpable violation of a clearing and gritting obligation could not be proven after the taking of evidence,” says the press office of the authority. In short: From the court’s point of view, the operator of the gas station did nothing wrong – which was also shown in the taking of evidence during the trial. This revealed that a gas station employee had spread the area at 7 a.m. In addition, the court was able to determine that on the day in question for Poing there was no recommendation from the German Weather Service for spreading measures due to the general danger of ice.
On the other hand, the woman could not prove that at the time of the accident there was a “general slippery surface”, i.e. not just individual slippery spots, and that the area should therefore have been sanded. For that reason, the court dismissed the claim in its entirety.