Reese, Judge. Paulino Tereza Moran (the “Decedent”) was changing a light bulb on a 30-foot light pole at Alderwood Trails Apartments (the “Property”) when the pole snapped at the base, causing him to fall and sustain fatal injuries. The Appellants, the minor children and the administratrix of the Decedent’s estate, filed a wrongful death action based on premises liability against KRC Alderwood Trails, LLC, and Strategic Management Partners, LLC (“SMP”), the owner and manager of the Property, respectively (collectively, the Appellees). The State Court of DeKalb County granted summary judgment in favor of the Appellees, and this appeal followed. For the reasons set forth, infra, we reverse the judgment and remand the case for further proceedings.Viewed in the light most favorable to the Appellants, as the non-moving parties,[1] the record shows the following. In November 2013, KRC acquired the Property and contracted with SMP to manage it. The Property, which had been built in 1972, included multiple apartment buildings and recreational areas, including a “sports court[,]” lit by four metal light poles. The subject pole was approximately 30 feet tall. At the top of each pole was a crossbar with a light fixture on each end. The poles were bolted to steel plates that were affixed to concrete pads, but the subject pole was in contact with soil on one side. Erosion in the area indicated that the soil level may have previously been higher. Prior to purchasing the Property, KRC had obtained a property condition assessment report, “ in order to evaluate acceptance of the Property as collateral to support a real estate-secured loan.” “In accordance with the agreed scope of work, [the] assessment [was] based upon observation of portions of the Property believed to be representative of overall conditions. Accordingly, conditions [could] exist which were not identified as a result of [the] assessment and overall conditions [could] vary from those identified [t]herein.” The report indicated significant areas of soil erosion throughout the property, however, and recommended that KRC hire an engineer to devise a plan to improve drainage.SMP employed a maintenance staff with “the basic tools” to make routine repairs, but regularly hired independent contractors for “major repairs.” In November 2014, SMP contacted Tereza Repair, LLC, a business owned by the Decedent’s brother, Ramiro Tereza-Moran (“Tereza”), because some of the lights at the sports court were not working.The Decedent worked at a car wash, but had prior experience in maintenance and had been helping out Tereza in the year and a half to two years that the business had been operating. The two men visited the Property one evening to see what needed to be done to fix the lighting. They went to every light pole, noting that the poles appeared to be stable, and used a ladder to view the two shorter poles. According to Tereza, they looked at the base of the pole at issue and observed that “[t]here was a little bit of trash there but [the two taller poles] looked good.” He said they saw nothing obviously wrong with the pole, but emphasized that they were only there to change the lightbulbs. Tereza prepared a proposal to replace four of the lightbulbs and included in the bid the cost of renting a “scissor lift” or forklift “because the pole was so high.” A nearby Home Depot and two other businesses did not have one immediately available, however, so Tereza decided to connect a portion of one ladder to a second extension ladder when they replaced the lightbulbs the following day.In January 2015, SMP again contacted Tereza to replace lightbulbs at the sports court. Tereza and the Decedent visited the Property to see what needed to be done. Tereza submitted an initial bid, but reduced the price after SMP balked at paying for a forklift. According to Tereza:We wanted to use a forklift not because the ladder was not safe, but because the pole was so high. But the pole had screws and had a [crossbar] that you could put the ladder on, and we had used the ladder before. If we wanted the job, we would have to use the ladder because [SMP] knew that we had used a ladder before and . . . we did not need the forklift. On February 17, 2015, the Decedent went to the Property with another relative who had recently begun working for Tereza. The two men connected two ladders in the same configuration as in the past, and the Decedent climbed up to replace a bulb, using a safety harness to secure himself to the subject pole. After the Decedent had been working on the bulb for approximately one minute, he asked “Did the post move?” At that moment, the pole snapped at its base and fell to the ground, fatally injuring the Decedent.The Appellants retained an expert in metallurgy and materials failure analysis, “to investigate the [pole's] failure and determine [its] cause.” The metallurgist testified that the pole had “serious blistering of the paint” near the point of failure such that someone doing an inspection of the pole would have questioned its structural integrity. Based on the extent of the corrosion, the metallurgist opined that the condition would have developed years before KRC acquired the Property. In his opinion, “based on the corrosion, pitting, and serious blistering of paint . . . the subject light pole had not been properly maintained for a long time prior to its failure.”Questioned whether the condition of the pole would be “readily apparent to any ordinary, reasonably prudent person[,]” the metallurgist responded that it was “ a little hard as an engineer and metallurgist to . . . put [him]self in the mind of an untrained person.” He elaborated: If you looked at [the pole] closely, you would be able to see the blistering of the paint. Whether that would set off any red flags in your mind would depend on your training and experience. If you had shined a light inside the pole, I think the conditions in there would raise a red flag to maybe a few more people, but still some people, not . . . trained in maintenance and . . . preservation of equipment, might not immediately apprehend that this was a dangerous condition.
