Tewksbury Gas Station Wins Appeal In Case About Pavement Grooves

TEWKSBURY, MA -- The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled in favor of a Tewskbury gas station earlier this summer in a case stemming from a 2012 slip-and-fall incident. Eileen Potvin claimed that Hess, now Speedway LLC, should have warned her about grooves in the pavement that are mandated by law to catch fuel spills. While walking backwards near the gas pumps on January 20, 2012, Potvin's heel caught in the groove and she fell.

While Potvin had admitted that the grooves were "open and obvious," she went ahead and sued on the grounds that the gas station should have anticipated customers would be distracted by their surroundings.

The plaintiff has not alleged — let alone offered facts to show — that there was anything unreasonably unsafe about either the design or the maintenance of the," Judge Bruce M. Selya wrote in the opinion afirming a lower court's ruling in favor of Speedway.

Read the complete ruling. Subscribe to Tewksbury Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Photo by corgarashu/Shutterstock.com.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).