, Presiding Judge.While a guest at a hotel, Marjary Dianne Leavins was injured when she slipped and fell as she was showering in a bathtub. Complaining about the condition of the bathtub, Leavins sued the hotel’s owner and operator, Nayan Corporation and MSR Fitzgerald, LLC (collectively, “Hotel Defendants”). The Hotel Defendants procured summary judgment, and Leavins appeals. Because Leavins has demonstrated no error in that ruling, we affirm. Summary judgment is proper “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” OCGA § 9-11-56 (c). “In our de novo review of the grant of a motion for summary judgment, we must view the evidence, and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, in the light most favorable to the nonmovant.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Cowart v. Widener, 287 Ga. 622, 624 (1) (a) (697 SE2d 779) (2010).So viewed, the record shows the following. At about 6:00 p.m. on July 28, 2013, sixty-five year old Leavins and her adult daughter, both residents of Panama City, Florida, arrived at the Quality Inn hotel located in Fitzgerald, Georgia. The daughter had pre-booked that hotel for their overnight lodging; the next day, they were planning to visit a family member nearby. Leavins was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, so during check-in, they asked the desk clerk to place Leavins in either a handicap accessible room or a room located on the first floor. Neither such room was available, and Leavins and her daughter accepted and retired to the adjacent rooms offered by the desk clerk. As the daughter explained, the rooms were “only two flights up, . . . and it was late, and I couldn’t even fathom trying to find a motel in Fitzgerald, Georgia, in the evening the night before I had somewhere to be with my mother.” The underlying “slip and fall” occurred the next morning. Leavins described in her deposition that when she stepped into the bathtub, no water was in the bathtub, and the bathtub appeared clean. As Leavins recounted, “I got in there and turned on the water, and then I got the soap and started to lather myself. And then, all of a sudden, my feet just went out from under me and . . . I went all the way down.” Leavins crawled out of the bathtub, walked to her cellphone, and summoned her daughter. Her daughter appeared from the adjacent room, and helped Leavins complete her dressing. The pair checked out of their rooms, left the hotel, and visited their family member later that day.During her deposition, Leavins answered questions about why she had fallen:Q: Why do you think you fell?A: The tub was slippery.Q: Do you know the industry standards for bathtub’s slipperiness?A: No.. . .Q: Did you take a look at the condition of the bathtub after you fell?A: No, my daughter did that.Q: Why do you think the bathtub was slippery?A: I have no idea. . .. . .Q: I just want to make sure that I get this. You think that you — why do you think that you slipped in the tub?A: Because I could tell the slipperiness of it. I mean, I was standing and my feet went like this (indicating), so to me, that was a slip.Q: Why was this tub slippery?A: I don’t know. When Leavins’s daughter was deposed, she was asked about her observation of the bathtub. She answered, “There was water in the tub, and I ran my hand across the tub and realized it was very slick. . . . There wasn’t a lot of soap.” She, too, was asked why her mother had fallen:Q: Do you have an opinion as to why your mom fell?A: The tub was slick. It was very slick.Q: What made it slick?A: I don’t know. . . . In her suit against the Hotel Defendants, Leavins pursued two theories of liability. First, she claimed that the Hotel Defendants were liable for negligence per se, relying on a rule promulgated by the Georgia Department of Public Health regarding Tourist Accommodations, which states that “[a]nti-slip tubs slip strips, appliques, or slip-proof mats shall be provided in each bathing facility and shall be kept clean and in good repair.” Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 511-6-2-.08 (10) (“Rule”). Second, Leavins claimed that the Hotel Defendants were liable for failing to keep their premises safe, asserting that “[they] had superior knowledge of the hazard posed by the slippery bathtub.” See OCGA § 51-3-1 (“Where an owner or occupier of land, by express or implied invitation, induces or leads others to come upon his premises for any lawful purpose, he is liable in damages to such persons for injuries caused by his failure to exercise ordinary care in keeping the premises and approaches safe.”).The Hotel Defendants moved for summary judgment. They argued that the Rule had not been in effect at the time of Leavins’s stay at the hotel. Furthermore, they argued that Leavins had failed to show that her injuries were caused by any breach of duty on their part. In particular, the Hotel Defendants asserted that Leavins had failed to make the requisite showing that the bathtub presented an unreasonable risk of harm. And even if Leavins made that showing, the Hotel Defendants went on to argue, Leavins had failed to show that they had superior knowledge of it. In support of their summary judgment motion, the Hotel Defendants relied upon the testimony given by Leavins and her daughter as outlined above; they also relied upon testimony given by the hotel’s manager who had been in charge of maintenance at the hotel during Leavins’s stay. Serving as the Hotel Defendants’ OCGA § 9-11-30 (b) (6) witness, that manager described safety features of the bathtub: A “built-in aspect of the molded tub” was a “bar” that “you could reach your hand all the way around”; and “manufactured” in “the bottom of the tub” was a “raised bumpy area.” And prior to Leavins’s incident, the manager further deposed, no guest had ever reported to hotel management a slip and fall sustained in any of the hotel’s bathtubs so designed. The Hotel Defendants further presented evidence of the policies and procedures for regular cleaning and inspections of the hotel’s guestrooms, including the bathrooms.Granting summary judgment to the Hotel Defendants, the trial court determined that Leavins’s claim premised upon negligence per se failed because the cited Rule was not in effect on the pertinent date. Furthermore, the court determined that, because Leavins had failed to show that the condition of the bathtub floor presented the requisite risk of harm, cases such as Bryant v. DIVYA, 278 Ga. App. 101 (628 SE2d 163) (2006), foreclosed her claim premised upon an owner’s or occupier’s statutory duty to its invitees.1. Leavins contends that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment on her negligence per se claim, maintaining that the Hotel Defendants were in violation of the Rule’s requirement to have “[a]nti-slip tubs slip strips, appliques, or slip-proof mats” on the floor of the bathtub. The trial court correctly determined, however, that when Leavins slipped and fell (on July 28, 2013), that Rule was not in effect. See Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 511-6-2-.23 (“These regulations shall become effective on January 1, 2014.”). Consequently, this contention provides no basis to disturb the summary judgment. See generally Griswold v. Collins, 318 Ga. App. 556, 560 (3) (734 SE2d 425) (2012) (recovery under negligence per se theory requires plaintiff to show, inter alia, that she is within class of persons the regulation was intended to protect); Bryant, 278 Ga. App. at 102-103 (determining that summary judgment was properly granted on negligence per se claim, where plaintiff who slipped and fell in the shower failed to offer any evidence indicating that the shower stall violated any safety codes). 2. Leavins contends that the trial court erred by granting summary judgment on her claim premised upon an owner’s or occupier’s statutory duty to its invitees, citing undisputed evidence that, at the time of her slip and fall, the bathtub was “slippery” and/or “slick.” Leavins maintains that “[the Hotel Defendants] breached the duty owed to [her] to [keep] their premises . . . free from a hazardous condition which could cause harm and the [Hotel Defendants] either knew, or should have known, of the dangerous condition of the tub on their premises[.]” Leavins adds, “ [T]he [Hotel Defendants] owed a duty of care to [her] to ensure that their premises [were] free from a hazardous condition.”(a) The trial court correctly found that Bryant, 278 Ga. App. at 101, was dispositive of Leavins’s claim based upon an owner’s or occupier’s statutory duty to its invitees. As Bryant makes clear,An owner or occupier of land has a statutory duty to keep its approaches and premises in a reasonably safe condition for invitees.[1] But an owner or occupier of land is not an insurer of the safety of its invitees. Rather, in premises liability cases, proof of a fall, without more, does not give rise to liability on the part of a proprietor. The true basis of a proprietor’s liability for personal injury to an invitee is the proprietor’s superior knowledge of a condition that may expose the invitees to an unreasonable risk of harm. Recovery is allowed only when the proprietor had knowledge and the invitee did not.
