ROBERT L. TRENTHAM v. MID-AMERICA APARTMENTS, LP ET AL. - Articles

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ROBERT L. TRENTHAM v. MID-AMERICA APARTMENTS, LP ET AL.

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Jan 8, 2025

Head Comment: CAMPBELL Dissents

Court: TN Supreme Court

Attorneys 1: Robert F. Parsley, Erin E. Steelman, and Jordan B. Scott, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Virginia N. Adamson, Karl M. Braun, Rodrequez C. Watson, and Kara G. Bidstrup, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellants, Mid America Apartments, LP, and Mid-America Apartments, LP, d/b/a Venue at Cool Springs.

Attorneys 2: Charles I. Malone and Jason W. Callen, Nashville, Tennessee, and David R. Fine, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for the appellee, Robert L. Trentham.

Attorneys 3: Donald M. Falk, San Francisco, California, and Edward H. Trent, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the Amicus Curiae, Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America.

Attorneys 4: Wallace W. Dietz and Lora Barkenbus Fox, Nashville, Tennessee, for the Amicus Curiae, Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.

Attorneys 5: Mark T. Freeman and Kristen J. Johnson, Nashville, Tennessee, and Nathan L. Kinard and Peter A. Newman, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the Amicus Curiae, National Apartment Association.

Attorneys 6: J. Russell Farrar, Brentwood, Tennessee, for the Amicus Curiae, Public Entity Partners.

Attorneys 7: Nathan L. Kinard and Peter A. Newman, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the Amicus Curiae, Tennessee Apartment Association.

Attorneys 8: Ryan T. Holt and Mark Alexander Carver, Nashville, Tennessee, for the Amicus Curiae, Tennessee Municipal Attorneys Association. Charles W. Bone and Sara Naylor, Nashville, Tennessee, for the Amicus Curiae, Tennessee Municipal League. W. Bryan Smith, Memphis, Tennessee, and Brian G. Brooks, Greenbrier, Arkansas, for the Amicus Curiae, Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association.

Judge(s): BIVINS

This appeal arises from a slip-and-fall incident at an apartment complex in Franklin, Tennessee. On a rainy morning at the Venue at Cool Springs apartment complex, owned and operated by Mid-America Apartments, LP, Robert Trentham slipped and fell on a pedestrian bridge on the way back to his apartment. Mr. Trentham sustained serious injuries and filed a premises-liability lawsuit alleging that MAA had been negligent in maintaining the pedestrian bridge. Mr. Trentham asserted that his slip-and-fall was caused by a microbial growth on the bridge that MAA should have known about and should have addressed. The trial court found in favor of Mr. Trentham, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the trial court. MAA disputes the holding of the lower courts that it was on constructive notice of a dangerous condition on the pedestrian bridge. We hold that, because the microbial growth on the pedestrian bridge amounts to a “general or continuing condition indicating the dangerous condition’s existence,” Blair v. W. Town Mall, 130 S.W.3d 761, 762 (Tenn. 2004), MAA was on constructive notice of a dangerous condition on the bridge at the time of Mr. Trentham’s fall. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals.

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