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574 A.2d 1365

Fish v. Paul

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine

Decided May 31, 1990

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine · decided 1990-05-31

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“in certain circumstances the relationship between a guest and an innkeeper may give rise to a duty to render aid in case of illness or injury. [Cit.]”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Rasnick v. Krishna Hospitality, Inc.

Relies on Joy v. Eastern Maine Medical Center · Howe v. Stubbs

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1990-05-31

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently July 2011

2 district · 5 state decisions

50199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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ROBERTS, Justice.

¶1Gretchen Fish, individually and as personal representative of the estate of her son, Mark Colvin, appeals the dismissal by *1366the Superior Court (Penobscot County, Beaulieu, J.) of her complaint for failure to state a claim against defendants John and Claire Paul, d/b/a Horseshoe Motel. M.R. Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Fish argues that the Pauls are liable for their failure to help Colvin, a guest who became ill at their motel. Because the undisputed facts do not give rise to a duty to act on the part of the Pauls, we affirm the judgment.

¶2The plaintiff alleges the following: On August 13, 1987, Colvin, who was 18 at the time, travelled with two companions, Steven Fahsel and Frederick Wood, from Bangor to Old Orchard Beach to attend a concert. After the concert, the three rented a room in Saco at the Horseshoe Motel, owned by the Pauls. During the night the three drank a substantial quantity of alcohol. The next morning an employee of the motel saw Fahsel and Wood carrying Col-vin, who was semiconscious, to a waiting car. After placing Colvin in the rear seat, Fahsel and Wood started back toward Bangor. On 1-95 near Etna, the ear overheated and stopped. A police officer stopped and called an ambulance for Colvin, but he was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bangor. The complaint sought compensatory damages for Colvin’s conscious pain and suffering, plaintiff’s loss of companionship, pecuniary loss, medical and funeral expenses and punitive damages for actual or implied malice.

¶3The court dismissed all counts against the Pauls on the basis that Maine has not recognized a duty of an innkeeper to aid a guest and, even if such a duty were recognized, the Pauls were entitled to assume that Colvin’s friends were attending him. Whether one party owes a duty of care to another is a matter of law. Joy v. Eastern Maine Medical Center, 529 A.2d 1364, 1365 (Me.1987). We have recognized the general duty of a business proprietor to exercise reasonable care to prevent injury to business invitees. Howe v. Stubbs, 570 A.2d 1203 (Me.1990). We also recognize that in certain circumstances the relationship between a guest and an innkeeper may give rise to a duty to render aid in case of illness or injury. Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 314A(2) (1965).

¶4Comment f to Section 314A, however, provides an explanation of the limits of this duty. The Comment states that the innkeeper “is not required to give any aid to one who is in the hands of apparently competent persons who have taken charge of him, or whose friends are present and apparently in a position to give him all necessary assistance.” The defendants contend that 1) the guest-innkeeper relationship had ended when Fahsel and Wood were seen carrying Colvin and 2) the presence of Col-vin’s friends already rendering aid relieves the motel of any obligation to do so. See Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 314A, comments c and f. We find the defendants’ argument persuasive even though based on the pleadings alone. The plaintiff has not asked for an opportunity to amend, but only for an evaluation by a jury of the facts alleged. We conclude that the facts alleged are not sufficient to state a claim against the Pauls.

¶5The entry is:

¶6Judgment affirmed.

¶7McKUSICK, C.J., and GLASSMAN, and COLLINS, JJ., concurring.

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