You Fell on Ice. Who Is Responsible for That in Nebraska?

If you fell on ice or packed snow in Nebraska, the people who may be responsible are whoever controls the spot where you fell: the business whose lot or entrance it was, the owner or manager of an apartment complex if it happened in a parking lot, sidewalk or stairway the tenants share, a homeowner or other property owner, and in narrower situations a city or county. To hold any of them responsible, you have to prove more than "it was slippery." You have to show they knew about the ice or should have found it, that it posed an unreasonable risk, that they should have expected people to get hurt by it, that they failed to use reasonable care, and that this caused your injury.

Winter is not a defense by itself, but it isn't an automatic win either.

Nebraska's rule: reasonable care for lawful visitors

Some states still give "licensees" less protection than "invitees." Nebraska dropped that split in an ice case. In Heins v. Webster County, 250 Neb. 750 (1996), a man left a county hospital through the main entrance after a heavy snowfall and fell, he said, because of accumulated ice and snow. The Nebraska Supreme Court used his case to decide "we should eliminate the distinction between licensees and invitees" by "requiring a standard of reasonable care for all lawful visitors." Trespassers are still treated separately.

So a customer, a tenant walking to her car, a delivery driver and a friend coming to visit all stand on the same footing. What counts as reasonable depends on factors Heins listed, including how foreseeable the harm was, how easy it would have been to fix or warn, and the burden on the owner.

The five things you have to prove

The Nebraska Supreme Court applies a five-part test, set out in Edwards v. Hy-Vee, 294 Neb. 237 (2016), and repeated in later cases. The owner or occupier is liable to a lawful visitor if the visitor proves that the owner:

1. created the condition, knew of it, or would have discovered it with reasonable care;
2. should have realized it involved an unreasonable risk of harm;
3. should have expected the visitor would not discover or realize the danger, or would fail to protect against it;
4. failed to use reasonable care to protect the visitor; and
5. the condition was a proximate cause of the injury.

The first element is often the fight in an ice case. Edwards explains that for constructive notice, the condition "must be visible and apparent and it must exist for a sufficient length of time prior to an accident to permit a defendant or the defendant's employees to discover and remedy it." Ice that formed overnight and was still there at noon is a very different case from freezing rain that glazed the lot ten minutes before you stepped out.

"Everyone knows it's icy in January"

Insurers lean hardest on the third element. Nebraska follows an open-and-obvious rule: an owner generally isn't liable for a danger that was known or obvious to the visitor, "unless the possessor should anticipate the harm despite such knowledge or obviousness." That language comes from Ermel v. SMA Enterprises, 30 Neb. App. 754 (2022), a Nebraska Court of Appeals decision that is worth knowing if you fell on ice.

In Ermel, a man dropping his car at a dealership late at night slipped on ice under a pair of roof downspouts. The trial court threw the case out, reasoning that ice on a winter day was an open and obvious risk. The Court of Appeals agreed "the risk of ice in general, on an indisputably wintery day, was an open and obvious risk." But it reversed anyway. The ice he fell on was a specific accumulation fed by the downspouts, thicker and slicker than the rest of the lot, in a dim spot he couldn't see until he turned the corner. That was a question for a jury. And the court added that even an obvious hazard "does not end the duty analysis": an owner may still have to anticipate that people will be distracted, or will cross the ice because they have to get where they're going.

That second point matters at an apartment complex, where a tenant often has no other way to reach her car.

What I take from Ermel is this: the question isn't whether it was winter. It's what exactly you slipped on, why it was there, and whether the owner knew. Ice under a downspout, refrozen meltwater below a snow pile, a shaded stairway, a low spot that ices over every year: an owner can see those coming.

Apartment complexes and their common areas

Apartment complex owners and management companies control the shared spaces: parking lots, sidewalks between buildings, exterior stairs and entrances. Tenants and guests have to use them, and only the owner can plow, salt and repair them. The same five elements apply to what the complex knew and did.

These cases often come down to paperwork: written snow procedures, maintenance requests, tenant complaints, and the plowing contract. A portal message from a month ago about a refreezing puddle can be the notice evidence the case needs, and a contractor's invoices show when someone actually showed up. And in some cases the plowing company itself may share responsibility for how it piled snow or whether it salted.

My clients have recovered in exactly these situations. These are the published results, as they appear on my case results page:

• $275,000 — Woman who slipped and fell on ice and snow, breaking her arm, at her apartment complex following a snowstorm.
• $275,000 — Woman who slipped and fell in the parking lot of her apartment complex in Columbus, Nebraska, following a January 2018 snowstorm. Resolved July 17, 2023 after lengthy litigation.
• $135,000 — Man who slipped and fell on ice, breaking his leg, in the parking lot of his apartment complex.

Those results don't predict what any other case is worth. The broader picture of falls at stores, homes and businesses is on my Omaha slip and fall lawyer page.

Public sidewalks, city lots and government property

The Omaha sidewalk ordinance. In Omaha, the duty to shovel the public sidewalk usually falls on the people next to it. Omaha Municipal Code § 34-332(a) makes it "the duty of the occupant, as well as the duty of the owner" of property to "clear all ice and snow from the sidewalks adjoining" it "within 24 hours after the city has declared that snow removal operations on the city's major streets are complete." Under § 34-331, an occupant includes a tenant or lessee. Whether breaking that ordinance makes a neighboring owner liable to the person who falls is a separate legal question that depends on the facts, but the ordinance may matter in identifying who was supposed to act and when.

Claims against a city or county. Nebraska's Political Subdivisions Tort Claims Act generally lets you sue a city, county or school district for negligence, but it lists exceptions. One of them, § 13-910(10), says the Act does not apply to "any claim arising out of snow or ice conditions or other temporary conditions caused by nature" on a highway, bridge, "public thoroughfare, or other public place due to weather conditions." That knocks out a lot of claims over weather-caused ice on public property. A hazard a government entity creates in another way may be a different story, and I look closely at what caused the ice before deciding whether a public body belongs in the case.

When a claim against a political subdivision is possible, the clock is short. Under § 13-919, the claim is "forever barred unless within one year after such claim accrued the claim is made in writing to the governing body." My Nebraska statute of limitations guide lays out that deadline next to the ones for private property owners.

Evidence that melts away

Ice cases have a problem most premises cases don't: the hazard disappears on its own. By the time an adjuster looks at the scene, it's bare concrete. Here's what wins or loses the case, and how to get it:

• Photos the same day. The ice, any downspout, snow pile or drain feeding it, whether there was salt or sand, the lighting, and your shoes, in wide shots and close-ups.
• Weather records. National Weather Service and NOAA observations show when precipitation stopped and how long it stayed below freezing, which is how you prove the ice sat long enough to be found.
• The incident report. Report the fall to the manager or business right away and ask for a copy. If they won't give one, write down who you spoke with and when.
• Video. Many complexes and stores have cameras on lots and entrances, and recordings get overwritten. I've written separately about surveillance video in slip-and-fall cases; doorbell and dash cameras matter too, and my page on dashcam, phone records and vehicle data explains how to preserve them.
• Witness names. Especially anyone who can say the spot had been icy for days.
• Your footwear. Keep the shoes or boots exactly as they were. The defense will ask about them.

How the defense argues fault, and the answer

Even a careless owner will blame you: wrong shoes, a phone, a shortcut. Under § 25-21,185.09, your own negligence "shall diminish proportionately" what you recover, and it bars recovery only if it "is equal to or greater than the total negligence of all persons against whom recovery is sought."

Three worked examples

These are hypotheticals, not real cases.

The complex lot. A tenant leaves for work at 6:30 a.m. two days after a storm. The lot was plowed once, but the plow pushed snow against the slope by her building and meltwater refroze across the walkway every night. Three tenants had complained through the portal. She falls and breaks her wrist. The complaints answer the notice question, and the weather data shows the refreeze cycle. Say her damages are $80,000 and a jury puts 20 percent on her for wearing flat-soled shoes. She recovers $64,000.

The store entrance. A shopper slips under a gutter that drains across the only entry, forty minutes into freezing drizzle. Notice is harder, but like the downspout in Ermel, that is a condition the store can anticipate.

The public sidewalk. A pedestrian falls on a downtown sidewalk after a storm. Section 13-910(10) likely blocks a weather-ice claim against the city, so the focus shifts to the adjoining property: did a business there drain water onto the walk, and what did the ordinance require of it?

Mistakes I see after icy falls

• Waiting to see a doctor. Gaps in care get used to argue you weren't hurt by the fall.
• Giving the owner's insurer a recorded statement. "I should have been more careful" ends up in the fault argument.
• Accepting the quick check. Early offers rarely account for surgery, hardware, or months of lost work. Read should you accept the first settlement offer first.

Why people call me after a winter fall

The owner's insurer always says the same thing: it's Nebraska, it snows, you should have been careful. That argument falls apart when the evidence shows the owner knew and let the ice sit. I'm a trial lawyer who fights hard for injured people, my clients have recovered more than $24 million, including a $5.4 million result, and you can read many five-star reviews from people I've helped. Best of Omaha voters chose my firm for personal injury law in 2025 and again in 2026.

If you broke a bone or got hurt on ice at an apartment complex, a store or anywhere else in Nebraska, take your photos, save your shoes, and call me before the evidence thaws. Call (402) 378-9208 or send me a message for a free consultation. You pay no attorney fee unless I recover money for you.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sue my apartment complex for slipping on ice in the parking lot?

You may be able to. Apartment owners and managers control shared parking lots, walks and stairs, and Nebraska requires reasonable care toward lawful visitors. The case turns on whether they knew or should have known about the ice and failed to deal with it.

Is a property owner automatically responsible if I fall on ice?

No. You have to prove the five elements, including notice and an unreasonable risk. Ice that formed minutes earlier during a storm is much harder to blame on anyone than ice that sat for days or kept coming back in the same spot.

Can I sue the City of Omaha for a fall on an icy public sidewalk?

Usually not for ice caused by weather. State law excludes claims arising out of weather-caused snow or ice on public places from the Tort Claims Act. Other people may still be responsible, and any claim against a government body needs a written claim within one year.

Your Attorney

Frank Younes

Every page on this site is written by Frank Younes, a Nebraska trial attorney with a published record of verdicts and settlements, selection to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and a practice that covers every county in Nebraska and Iowa. No case is handed to an associate — the lawyer you read here is the lawyer who works your case.

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