Corbett v. Heck

As she walked out of the front door of the defendant’s tavern, Maxine Corbett, the plaintiff, caught her heel in an opening in a doormat, fell and broke a leg. The trial judge and the majority hold as a matter of law that the defendant was not negligent in using the particular doormat upon which she tripped. The trial judge stated that the mat “is an ordinary mat and is in common usage in this section of the country.”

The doormat is, indeed, commonly seen. The rubber links that comprise the mat are of identical size, several inches long. They are laid out in rows from left to right. Each row…