Shopping Center Had No Duty to Warn Sign Electrician of Obvious Danger of Non-Weight-Bearing Canopy.

An electrician was installing a sign in a storefront canopy at a shopping center when he fell through the canopy and was injured. He subsequently sued the owner of the shopping center, and the district court granted summary judgment to the shopping center, finding that the shopping center owed no duty of care to the electrician. On appeal, the court affirmed, finding that a landowner does not generally owe a duty of care to a business invitee for dangers that are known or obvious. Even if the canopy design was a hazard, as the electrician asserted, it was an open and obvious one, which should have alerted the electrician to the fact that its bottom was not weight bearing. The electrician testified that he knew the soffit was not weight bearing, and he was a “master sign electrician,” with more than 10 years of experience.  The landowner had no duty to warn him of an obvious hazard integral to his work.  Pinson v. 45 Dev., LLC, No. 13-3327, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 13175 (8th Cir. Ark. Jul. 11, 2014).