Tindall

BACKGROUND

One evening in November 2019, Tindall slipped on a layer of ice as she walked to her car in the parking lot of the County jail where she worked. The parking lot—owned and maintained by the County, and used by both the public and people who work at the jail—had been snowplowed the previous day. Under the supervision of County sheriff deputies, jail inmates routinely applied salt/snowmelt to high-traffic sidewalk areas around the jail. And if someone complained about specific patches of ice or snow on the grounds, including in the parking lot, sheriff officials sometimes instructed inmates to apply additional salt/snowmelt or did it themselves, but sheriff officials believed that ice and snow removal in the parking lot generally was the responsibility of County facilities maintenance staff. When Tindall arrived at work on the morning of the day she slipped, she could see the footprints that her snow boots made because there was fresh snow on the sidewalk. She wore snow boots because she believed they made it safer to walk through the snow. During her lunch break that day, Tindall changed into her snow boots to take a walk around the building. On that walk, she noticed…