Webb v. North Carolina Dept. of Transp.

ELMORE, Judge.

Elmer Sherman Webb (plaintiff) and his wife stopped at the southbound I-95 rest area near Selma, North Carolina, on 30 December 1999. While Mrs. Webb was in the restroom, plaintiff exited the car to purchase a newspaper. Plaintiff observed that there was a sidewalk that led to the newspaper kiosk, but that a more direct route could be taken across some grass and a shrub bed covered in pine straw. Plaintiff chose the more direct route. When nearing the newspaper kiosk, plaintiff stepped from the grass onto the pine straw. The pine straw obscured metal landscape edging that…