Marcia Trulove fell off of a pool deck that had obviously not been completed in that the handrails had not been installed. She seriously injured one arm in the fall. She sued her friend Deborah L. Jones, the homeowner. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Jones, and Trulove appeals. Construed in favor of Trulove, the evidence shows that in March of 2002, Jones began installing a deck around her new, above-ground pool. As of May 23, 2002, the deck itself had been built, but the handrails had not been installed. Jones invited her friend Trulove over for a swim, and, according to Trulove, Jones said, “come over and look at the deck, come to the pool, look at the deck that I’m building, my new deck,” and, “it’s not finished.” Trulove had been at the house for an hour before the fall, and all of that time was spent in or around the pool and on the deck. She had one glass of white wine during that time. The entire deck was visible to her, and she admitted that it was obvious that there were no railings. Other people were present including children.
At one point, Trulove was standing facing the pool, talking to Jones, who was lying on the deck right next to the pool. Behind Trulove by only a couple of steps, possibly three feet, was the edge of the deck then a drop of four to five feet to the ground. The total distance between the pool edge and the deck edge was about five or six feet. And Trulove knew that there was no railing behind her. The two women had a conversation there for 10 or 15 minutes, when a young boy, unrelated to the parties, tried to get Trulove to help him push Jones into the pool. The women ignored the boy for a few minutes, then Jones said okay and rolled into the pool as the boy was trying to give her a little shove. Trulove stepped backwards without looking to get out of the way and fell off the deck to the ground, badly injuring her left arm. Trulove explained her actions by saying, “when there’s a couple of people doing stuff, you just kind of move out of the way” in order to play it safe. She testified that nothing prevented her from turning around and looking to see where she was stepping.
