## Facts

- Sue A. Merrill visited a mobile home rented by her daughter, Sherri Pritchard, from landlord Alvina Jansma.
- On February 19, 2000, Merrill fell while using wooden front steps leading to the porch and front door.
- During the tenancy, the steps became loose; Pritchard unsuccessfully tried to secure them and notified the property manager, who also did not fix the problem.
- When Merrill stepped onto the stairs, they separated from the porch, causing her to fall and injure her shoulder.
- Merrill sued Jansma for negligence, alleging Jansma knew or should have known the steps were dangerous and failed to use reasonable care to correct the condition.
- The district court granted summary judgment to Jansma, concluding the landlord owed Merrill no duty under the Wyoming Residential Rental Property Act (RRPA) or under common-law landlord immunity.

## Issues

1. Whether the Wyoming Residential Rental Property Act imposes a legal duty on a residential landlord that supports negligence liability for injuries to a tenant’s invitee on leased premises, thereby displacing common-law landlord immunity.
2. Whether summary judgment was proper given alleged disputes about defect, notice, breach, and causation.

## Decision

- The Wyoming Supreme Court reversed the summary judgment and remanded.
- The court held the RRPA imposes a mandatory landlord duty to maintain leased residential premises in a safe, sanitary, fit, and habitable condition.
- The court held this statutory duty supplies a negligence standard of reasonable care under the circumstances for personal injuries occurring on leased residential premises.
- The court concluded the RRPA replaces the common-law rule of landlord immunity and its exceptions in the residential context.
- The court rejected the argument that statutory notice-and-cure provisions bar personal injury tort claims by tenants or their invitees.
- The court determined factual questions remained for a fact-finder, including the existence of a dangerous defect, the landlord’s knowledge (actual or constructive), breach of the duty of reasonable care, and proximate causation.

## Legal Principles

- Residential landlords have a statutory duty under the RRPA to maintain leased premises in a fit and habitable condition, including conditions affecting physical safety.
- The RRPA’s maintenance duty establishes the generally applicable standard of care for personal injury claims arising on leased residential premises: reasonable care under the circumstances.
- In Wyoming residential tenancies, the RRPA supersedes common-law landlord immunity and its traditional exceptions as the organizing framework for landlord tort liability.
- Statutory notice-and-cure provisions aimed at landlord-tenant remedies do not, by themselves, preclude negligence actions for personal injuries by tenants or their invitees.

## Conclusion

The court held that Wyoming’s RRPA imposes a general duty of reasonable care on residential landlords to keep leased premises fit and habitable, allowing tenants and their invitees to pursue negligence claims for injuries caused by unsafe conditions, and it reversed summary judgment because duty existed and material fact issues remained for trial.


Merrill v. Jansma, 86 P.3d 270 (Wyo. 2004)