The Provincial Court of Valladolid has ordered a neighbourhood association to pay €12,155.20 to a postman who, while on duty, fell after tripping over a step or ledge on the door when leaving the entrance to the building. As a result, he sustained a serious injury to one of his legs. The sum corresponds to two days of serious personal injury, 107 days of moderate personal injury, plus five stitches for after-effects resulting in slight cosmetic injury.
In its judgement, the Court considers that there was a change in level between the street and the inside of the doorway, created by a 9-centimetre high step on which the door frame of the entrance door to the building rests. Obviously, the fairly insignificant height of the step works against its visibility, as the higher the step the more obvious the unevenness is to anyone approaching it. In Castilla y León, the regulations on accessibility and the removal of architectural barriers, although not applicable due to the building's construction date, do allow the dangerous nature of certain obstacles to be assessed.
The judge considered that there was no need for specific signage to warn of the danger to third parties, but there was a failure to use eye-catching cladding to indicate a difference in level.
In the present case, the postman entered the doorway to deliver a notification to a woman living in the building, and it appears that he had only started working in the area three days earlier. He, therefore, had no prior knowledge of the doorway conditions and the uneven floor. Even if he had previously entered the doorway minutes before leaving and had to open the entrance door to access the street again, he might not have noticed it, not only because there was no signage but because it was masked by the reflection of the aforementioned doormat.
In short, the Court considers that a pedestrian is not required to foresee the presence of a slight (barely 9 cm) yet at the same time significant difference in level, which is not signposted or highlighted, but rather masked, on a normal way out of a building's doorway. Consequently, the Court agrees with the judgement of imputation given by the Valladolid Court of First Instance no. 15 that there was negligence in how the change of level between the street and the doorway was arranged, which, due to its particular characteristics, constitutes an abnormal obstacle and a general risk because it cannot be foreseen by the victim.