Parking lot fall cases in Georgia

A Georgia parking lot fall runs under the same § 51-3-1 duty as a fall inside a store, but two questions arrive sooner: who controlled that piece of pavement, and could a person have seen the hazard in those conditions? The statute covers “the premises and approaches”, so a lot can qualify either way. Yet the store may not control the lot, and darkness alone doesn’t create a claim.

Who answers for the pavement

The defendant isn’t always the business the customer came to see.

Setting	Who to look at	What decides it
Stand-alone store with its own lot	Owner or occupier	Ordinary care under § 51-3-1
Shopping center common area	Center owner, manager, possibly a tenant	The lease and who did the work
Property leased out in full	Tenant, and possibly the landlord	§ 44-7-14
Apartment complex lot	Landlord	§ 51-3-1 for common areas
Public plaza or walkway at the door	The business, within its limited right	Todd
Lot owned by a government	The agency or city	Immunity and notice rules
Paving or event contractor	The company that did the work	Its own conduct

In Brixmor New Chastain Corners v. James, 367 Ga. App. 235 (2023), the plaintiff had gone to a restaurant, and the appeal was brought by the owner of the shopping center.

A lease doesn’t always settle the matter for an injured visitor. In Flagler Co. v. Savage, 258 Ga. 335 (1988), a man returning to a restaurant lot around 3:00 a.m. walked into woods beside it and fell 70 feet. The owner had given up possession under a 25-year lease. Even so, the Supreme Court left the claim against that owner standing because of § 44-7-14, and it said a lease clause relieving the landlord of repairs wasn’t effective “as against third persons lawfully on the premises”. The contractor that followed the plans won.

In an apartment case, Cham v. ECI Management, 311 Ga. 170 (2021), the court separated common areas under § 51-3-1 from tenant-held space under § 44-7-14.

How far the approach reaches

Todd v. F. W. Woolworth, 258 Ga. 194 (1988), says the duty over an approach is “circumscribed by his right in the approach”. The store there didn’t own the icy public plaza outside its door. It still had the right any member of the public has to remove ice and warn customers, so whether it should have done that was for the jury.

The reach has limits. In Martin v. Six Flags Over Georgia II, 301 Ga. 323 (2017), a bus stop outside the park wasn’t an approach, although liability stood on other grounds. A person hit by a vehicle in a lot raises different issues, covered on premises liability versus negligence.

Wheel stops, humps, and level changes

Owners have argued that these features can’t be hazards as a matter of law. Brixmor rejected that for a set of bumpers. They were laid end to end beside a parking space to mark off a motorcycle area, and they had been left an unpainted light color after asphalt work about a month earlier. It was dark. The court said wheel stops and parking bumpers may be hazards, and it called some older decisions “of dubious value after Robinson”.

Decision	Feature	Result
Brixmor	Unpainted bumpers, at night	Denial of summary judgment affirmed
Hailu v. John Milledge Academy, A25A1130 (2025)	Asphalt hump in a crosswalk, same look as the surface	Summary judgment reversed
North Fulton v. Goodstein, 367 Ga. App. 576 (2023)	Unmarked rise on an access drive	Denial affirmed
Stevens v. Welch, A25A0778 (2025)	Edge of an earthen bridge, visible in photos	Judgment for the owner affirmed

Prior traversal is the main fight on a fixed feature. Stevens had crossed that bridge on an earlier trip and lost. In Brixmor, the record didn’t clearly show that the plaintiff had crossed the specific hazard, only that she had walked close to it, so the question stayed with a jury. In Hailu there was no earlier passage.

Note the repainting in both. The bumpers went yellow five days after the fall in Brixmor, and the hump went yellow a few weeks later in Hailu. Photograph the original color quickly, and see spoliation on what such a change can mean.

Things that come and go

Debris, spills, carts, and event equipment turn on the owner’s knowledge. In Cooper v. Corporate Property Investors, 220 Ga. App. 889 (1996), a woman tripped over a board covering wires in a crowded mall parking lot during an event. The crowd showed the defendants knew people were there, but nothing showed that any of them placed the board or knew of it. The defense won. “[A] landowner is not an insurer” was the court’s point. So find out who put the object there, and when.

Rain and ice have their own page on weather hazards, and checks and logs are on inspection routines.

Darkness alone isn’t the claim

Suddarth v. Lounsbrough, 369 Ga. App. 158 (2023), states that an owner has no obligation, even to an invitee, “to illuminate passageways, porches or steps, absent a contractual or statutory duty to do so”. So tie the darkness to a specific hazard that it hid, as the plaintiff did in Brixmor. Inadequate lighting explains the rule’s condition.

Someone attacked in a dark lot has a different claim, because § 51-3-53 makes the negligent security article the sole remedy, with exceptions.

What the plaintiff was watching

People in a lot look for cars as well as at the ground. Robinson v. Kroger, 268 Ga. 735 (1997), says that not looking where you step doesn’t end a case as a matter of law. An invitee doesn’t have to “look continuously at the floor for defects”. The test is prudence “in a like situation”. Robinson also cited decisions holding that “a pedestrian’s possible confrontation with vehicular traffic could constitute a distraction”, so traffic can help, depending on the facts. Stevens held that a wood pile wasn’t a distraction, while Holston v. Aboebarensi, A26A1219 (2026), shows what happens when the plaintiff saw the object before tripping on it. Fault is divided under § 51-12-33, with recovery ending at 50 percent.

Recording the pavement before it changes

1. Photograph the spot, including its color and surroundings, and return at the same hour if it was dark.
2. Measure any height or depth with a tape in the picture.
3. Write down which door you used and your route, because earlier passage matters.
4. Ask each business nearby about camera coverage of that area.
5. Find who owns the lot, through property records, and ask for the lease and maintenance contract once suit allows.

Documenting premises hazards has more, and sidewalk falls covers government owners. The injury deadline in § 9-3-33 is two years, and identifying the wrong defendant doesn’t stop it.

Sources

• Brixmor New Chastain Corners v. James, 367 Ga. App. 235
• Flagler Co. v. Savage, 258 Ga. 335
• Cham v. ECI Management, 311 Ga. 170
• Todd v. F. W. Woolworth, 258 Ga. 194
• Martin v. Six Flags Over Georgia II, 301 Ga. 323
• Hailu v. John Milledge Academy, A25A1130
• North Fulton Community Charities v. Goodstein, 367 Ga. App. 576
• Stevens v. Welch, A25A0778
• Cooper v. Corporate Property Investors, 220 Ga. App. 889
• Suddarth v. Lounsbrough, 369 Ga. App. 158
• Robinson v. Kroger, 268 Ga. 735
• Holston v. Aboebarensi, A26A1219
• Official Code of Georgia Annotated, November 2022 public release: §§ 9-3-33, 44-7-14, 51-3-1, 51-12-33
• Georgia Senate Bill 68 (2025): § 51-3-53

This page was last reviewed in November 2026 for general information. Laws and court decisions can change after that date. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.