## Facts

- Mrs. Arnold Pursley severed the tip of her finger at home and went to Gulfway General Hospital for emergency treatment.
- Weather conditions were cold and rainy, and ice was present at her home and on streets leading to the hospital.
- On arrival, Mrs. Pursley and her daughter approached the hospital’s emergency entrance; they avoided an icy sidewalk by walking on the grass, and she warned her daughter to be careful.
- Ice was present on the emergency entrance porch.
- Mrs. Pursley saw the ice before stepping onto the porch, knew it was slippery, and appreciated the danger.
- She proceeded onto the porch because it was the only way to enter and she sought emergency care, then slipped and fell, sustaining injuries.
- A jury found the hospital negligent for allowing ice to remain on the porch and found proximate cause; it also found Mrs. Pursley knew of and appreciated the danger and that the event was not an unavoidable accident.
- The trial court entered judgment for Mrs. Pursley; the hospital appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a premises owner owes a duty to warn of or make safe an icy condition when the invitee admits she saw the ice and appreciated the risk.
2. Whether the invitee’s asserted necessity to obtain emergency medical treatment creates an exception to the no-duty rule for known or open and obvious hazards.
3. Whether a hospital’s emergency entrance is subject to a heightened standard of care in premises liability.

## Decision

- The appellate court reversed the trial court’s judgment and rendered a take-nothing judgment against Mrs. Pursley.
- The court held the hospital owed no duty to warn or protect Mrs. Pursley from the icy porch because the danger was open and obvious and was actually known and appreciated by her.
- The court rejected an exception based on the plaintiff’s emergency medical need or humanitarian motives because any “compulsion” was not created by the hospital.
- The court declined to impose a heightened duty for a private hospital’s emergency entrance beyond ordinary premises-liability rules.

## Legal Principles

- A premises owner generally has no duty to warn of or make safe conditions whose dangers are known to the invitee or are so open and obvious that the invitee may reasonably be expected to discover them.
- When duty is negated by the invitee’s actual knowledge and appreciation of the risk, negligence and proximate-cause findings do not support liability.
- Necessity or urgency arising from the invitee’s circumstances, without compulsion attributable to the premises owner, does not create a duty otherwise negated by a known or obvious danger.
- A private hospital, as a private premises owner, is governed by ordinary premises-liability standards absent a recognized basis for a special, heightened duty.

## Conclusion

The court held that because Mrs. Pursley saw and appreciated the icy condition before stepping onto the hospital’s emergency entrance porch, the hospital owed no duty to warn or make the condition safe, and her need for emergency treatment did not create an exception; judgment was rendered that she take nothing.


Gulfway Gen. Hosp., Inc. v. Pursley, 397 S.W.2d 93 (Tex. Civ. App.—Waco 1965)