Regina Boyd was an invitee at a store leased and occupied by Big Lots Stores, Inc., which was located in a shopping center with a common area parking lot owned by the shopping center owner/lessor. After Boyd left the Big Lots store, she was injured when she slipped and fell in the parking lot while walking to her car. Boyd sued Big Lots claiming that her injury was proximately caused by the negligent failure of Big Lots: (1) to discharge the duty imposed on it by OCGA § 51-3-1 to keep the store premises and approaches safe for invitees; or (2) to discharge a duty it voluntarily assumed pursuant to Restatement (Second) of Torts § 324A to protect its invitees from the dangerous condition in the parking lot of which it had notice. Boyd appeals from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Big Lots on these claims, and for the reasons that follow, we affirm.1. Under OCGA § 51-3-1, Big Lots owed a duty to its invitees to exercise ordinary care to keep the store premises, and the approaches to the premises, “in a reasonably safe condition.” Robinson v. Kroger Co., 268 Ga. 735, 740 (493 SE2d 403) (1997). After shopping at the store, Boyd left the store premises, walked away from the store across a sidewalk in front of the store, and then continued walking away from the store toward her car into the shopping center’s parking lot where she slipped and fell in a liquid substance on the surface of the parking lot about 45 feet from the store entrance. The shopping center parking lot was a common area owned and maintained by the shopping center owner/lessor or its assignee. The undisputed facts show that Boyd was not on the Big Lots store premises when she slipped and fell in the common area parking lot, and the trial court correctly concluded that the parking lot was not an approach to the store premises within the meaning of OCGA § 51-3-1.Under Motel Properties, Inc. v. Miller, 263 Ga. 484, 486 (436 SE2d 196) (1993), an approach to the premises for the purpose of OCGA § 51-3-1 means that property directly contiguous, adjacent to, and touching those entryways to premises under the control of an owner or occupier of land, through which the owner or occupier, by express or implied invitation, has induced or led others to come upon his premises for any lawful purpose, and through which such owner or occupier could foresee a reasonable invitee would find it necessary or convenient to traverse while entering or exiting in the course of the business for which the invitation was extended. By “contiguous, adjacent to, and touching,” we mean that property within the last few steps taken by invitees, as opposed to “mere pedestrians,” as they enter or exit the premises. It is only within the confines of this limited approach that [a duty is imposed] on a landowner [or occupier] to exercise ordinary care over property not within the landowner’s [or occupier's] control.
