The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Monday upheld a decision by a former Cambria County judge who dismissed a civil lawsuit against Johnstown’s Conemaugh Medical Center that was filed by a woman injured in a fall she alleged was caused by “black ice” while in the hospital’s parking lot.

The fall occurred in the morning of Jan. 14, 2019, injuring Christine Bywater, who was getting out of her vehicle just after arriving at the Medical Center’s Lee Campus.

Bywater was there to visit a patient.

She was accompanied by her sister-in-law Payge Bywater.

The Superior Court opinion issued by Judges Deborah A. Kunselman, Mary P. Murray and Maria McLaughlin explained that, as Bywater started to exit the drivers side of her car, she “went up … and came down” on the side of the vehicle, injuring her left shoulder and hitting her head before falling to the pavement.

Her sister-in-law did not see what occurred, but another couple helped Christine Bywater stand, and then aided with her placement in a wheelchair.

The appeals court panel indicated Bywater suffered numerous injuries in the fall.

Pittsburgh Attorneys Wayne M. Chiurazzi, Donna M. Flaherty and Edward W. Wertman filed a civil lawsuit against the hospital, but now-retired Cambria County Judge David Tulowitzki dismissed the case last September.

Bywater’s attorneys then filed an appeal with the Superior Court.

The appeals court panel in its review emphasized that the fall victim “never established that any ice was visually apparent in the parking lot in the first place.”

While not seeing any ice in the parking lot “she merely presumed that, because she fell, there must have been ice beneath her,” the Superior Court summarized.

She also assumed the fall was caused due to ice because her clothes were wet subsequent to the incident.

But, the appeals court panel concluded, “her asserting that ice was present is only speculation.”

The Superior Court next turned to the question whether the trial judge properly dismissed the lawsuit at this very early stage of the proceedings.

In answering this question, the panel referred to Tulowitzki’s opinion.

The judge explained his position by outlining Pennsylvania’s “Doctrine of hills and ridges.”

The legal theory serves as protection for landowners, noting that the law does not require “one’s walks always be free of ice and snow (an impossible burden in view of the climatic conditions in this hemisphere),” the judge stated.

The property owner’s duty is to act within a “reasonable time” after notice (of snow and ice) to remove a dangerous condition, his explanation continued.

For a fall victim to recover damages, he or she must show the snow and ice had accumulated in the ridges or elevations on the surface “as to unreasonably obstruct travel and constitute a danger to pedestrians traveling thereon,” the judge stated.

He concluded, “Without any evidence that the black ice actually was observable for any significant period of time prior to the accident, a jury cannot reasonably infer that the medical center had actual or constructive notice of the hazardous condition.”

The Superior Court panel stated it was adopting Tulowitzki’s opinion as its own.