Under Rhode Island law, owners and possessors of property have an affirmative duty: “to exercise reasonable care for the safety of persons reasonably expected to be on the premises, and that duty includes an obligation to protect against the risks of a dangerous condition existing on the premises, provided the landowner knows of, or by the exercise of reasonable care would have discovered, the dangerous condition.” Tancrelle v. Friendly Ice Cream Corp., 756 A.2d 744, 752 (R.I. 2000) (citing Cutroneo v. F.W. Woolworth Co., Moreover, a business inviter owes a duty to a business invitee to “use reasonable care to see that the common areas are kept reasonably safe from the dangers created by the accumulation of snow and ice which is attributed to purely natural causes.” Berardis v. Louangxay, 969 A.2d 1288 (2009). In extending to common areas, Rhode Island thus recognizes the same duty/standard when the snow and ice is attributed to natural causes. Id.
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