Attorneys Jeffrey Behm and Eric Miller recently secured a landmark decision in the Supreme Court in Demag v. Better Power Equipment, Inc., successfully arguing that the Court should abandon Vermont’s common law distinction between business invitees and licensees in premises liability cases.
Rodney Demag was seriously injured when he fell into an open manhole in the Defendant’s parking lot. Challenging a trial court ruling, Mr. Behm and Mr. Miller urged the Court to change its centuries-old premises liability law, and instead require business owners to accord the same duty of care to all invited guests. In an opinion issued on July 18, 2014, the Court agreed, abandoning the common law distinction and adopting a duty of reasonable toward all lawful entrants onto property.