Appellee May Catherine Hopkins was injured when she fell as she traversed a handicap access ramp leading to the parking lot of a hotel where she had been a guest. Hopkins filed suit seeking damages from the hotel owner, the hotel developer, and appellee Hollis & Spann, Inc., the independent contractor who constructed the allegedly defective ramp. Hollis & Spann filed a motion for summary judgment, contending that Georgia’s “acceptance doctrine” precluded a finding of its liability. Hollis and Spann argued that it constructed the ramp in accordance with design plans provided on behalf of the hotel owner, that it subsequently rebuilt the ramp in accordance with the instructions of the City building inspector, and that the completed work was thereafter accepted by the City building inspector and the hotel owner. The trial court denied the motion, finding that there was evidence that Hollis & Spann had negligently constructed the ramp and also evidence supporting application of an exception to the acceptance doctrine. We granted Hollis & Spann’s application for interlocutory appeal to review this issue. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court’s decision. Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. OCGA § 9-11-56 c. A de novo standard of review applies to an appeal from a grant of summary judgment, and we view the evidence, and all reasonable conclusions and inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Matjoulis v. Integon Gen. Ins. Corp. , 226 Ga. App. 459 1 486 SE2d 684 1997. So viewed, the evidence shows that in June 2003, Hopkins, a 67 year old woman stayed overnight with her sister at the Spring Hill Suites Hotel in Savannah. The following morning, Hopkins and her sister checked out of the hotel and were walking to their car when they came upon the handicap ramp leading to the parking lot. According to Hopkins, the ramp looked like it “was connected to the sidewalk” and she could not see the sloped sides of the ramp as she approached it. Hopkins stated that when she attempted to step onto the ramp in the area that she thought was connected to the sidewalk, “the ramp wasn’t there” and she stumbled and fell onto the ground. Hopkins injured her foot and required medical treatment.
Hopkins alleged that her fall was caused by a defect in the construction of the ramp, which created a dangerous condition. She alleged that the ramp had an “uneven surface with drops of several inches from the sidewalk to the ramp surface and . . . the parking lot surface.” She also alleged that there was a lack of “contrast with the concrete sidewalk curb to which it was attached, making it difficult to distinguish the concrete sidewalk curb from the concrete ramp.” Hopkins presented expert affidavits from an architect, L. Scott Barnard, to support her claims. According to Barnard, the accessibility guidelines of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act “ADA” and the Georgia code mandate that the maximum slope of the side flares of a curb ramp may not exceed 1:10 and all curb ramps must have detectable warning textures. Barnard opined that the construction drawings provided by the engineering company that designed the ramp complied with these regulatory guidelines, but the ramp constructed by Hollis & Spann did not. Barnard averred that the ramp as constructed was defective because its side flares grossly exceeded the maximum slope allowance and failed to have detectable warnings distinguishing the natural colored concrete curb ramp, including the sloped side flares, from the natural colored concrete curb surrounding the surface. He further opined that these defects in the ramp likely caused Hopkins to believe that the surface leading to the ramp was level, when in fact it was not, and likely caused her to trip and fall while attempting to step onto the ramp.
