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A church owed a duty to protect its visitors crossing a busy street from a designated overflow parking lot, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled, clarifying the boundaries of a ruling from last year in which it held that a nightclub owed no such duty under similar circumstances.

In Charney v. Reitz, a three-judge panel of the court unanimously ruled in a nonprecedential decision that defendant Friends of Peace Church (FOPC) owed a duty to D'Arcy Wagonhurst, an 84-year-old woman who was struck and killed by a car while crossing a busy street to attend a Christmas program at the church. Wagonhurst had parked in a private commercial lot that the church had instructed visitors to use.

The appeals court reversed a Cumberland County trial court's ruling granting summary judgment in favor of the church and against the plaintiff, Wagonhurst's son, Douglas Charney.

Writing for the panel, Judge Deborah Kunselman drew a distinction between Charney's case and the 2017 case Newell v. Montana W., which the trial court relied on in siding with FOPC.

In Newell, the Superior Court had held that a nightclub owed no duty to a man who was killed crossing the street as he returned to his car after a show. The decedent, Victor Newell, had parked in a commercial lot across from the club, but had not been directed to park there by the club and did not have the permission to do so from the owner of the lot.

According to Kunselman, that fact is what distinguished Newell from Charney.

“Although the facts here are somewhat similar to Newell, they differ significantly, because, unlike Montana West, FOPC regularly undertook actions to assist visitors when crossing the street,” Kunselman said. “Therefore, we are constrained to reverse the decision of the trial court in this matter, with respect to the issue of whether FOPC owed a duty to pedestrians, like Ms.
Wagonhurst, and remand for a jury trial consistent with this memorandum.”

Kunselman was joined by Judges Anne E. Lazarus and Kate Ford Elliott.

According to Kunselman's opinion, FOPC, which has only four on-site parking spaces, had, at various times in the past, instructed patrons to park at a lot across St. John's Church Road, which has very heavy traffic. Sometimes the FOPC enlisted the local police or firefighters to assist with traffic control. Other times, including the night Wagonhurst was killed, the church used reflective cones. The location of the cones on that night are in dispute, Kunselman said.

Kunselman said that, based on those facts, the church ”undertook sufficient steps to voluntarily assume a duty to protect its visitors who parked in the lot across St. John's Church Road on the night of the accident.”

“This duty started when FOPC instructed its visitors to park in this lot,” Kunselman continued. ”This fact, alone, might not create a duty on the part of FOPC. However, this, coupled with the additional facts that FOPC hired an employee to assist in ensuring the safety of pedestrians, and used reflective traffic cones regularly, including on the night in question, suggests FOPC undertook 'a consistent or ongoing pattern of conduct to voluntarily protect invitees who parked across the street.' Thus, whether it acted negligently in undertaking these duties on the night Ms. Wagonhurst was killed created a question of fact for the jury to decide.”

Counsel for Charney, David B. Dowling of Cunningham, Chernicoff & Warshawsky, said the ruling clarified the Newell decision.

“I think the takeaway from the case is that Newell should not be read to exclude or prevent liability against a property owner if someone is crossing the street to get to their place of business. It is really fact-specific,” he said.

FOPC's attorney, Timothy Kepner of William J. Ferren & Associates in Hartford, Connecticut, could not be reached for comment.