Proposed legislation pending in the Michigan Senate could change how premises liability claims are evaluated. House Bill 4582 passed the House on March 11, 2026, by a vote of 58–48 and was referred to the Senate Committee on Finance, Insurance, and Consumer Protection on March 17, 2026, where it remains pending.

Introduced by Representative Jerry Neyer in June 2025, the bill would create a Premises Liability Act restoring an open and obvious limitation on a premises possessor’s duty to invitees. The proposal responds to the Michigan Supreme Court’s July 2023 decision in Kandil-Elsayed, which moved consideration of whether a condition is open and obvious from the duty analysis to the assessment of breach and comparative fault.

Under the proposed legislation, a possessor would generally owe a duty to use ordinary care to protect invitees from unreasonable risks posed by conditions the possessor knows or should know about. The bill would generally eliminate a duty to protect against or warn of open and obvious conditions, while retaining an exception for conditions with special features that make them effectively unavoidable or create an unreasonably high risk of severe harm.

The bill would not create a duty for an owner who is not also a possessor, and it would preserve existing defenses and comparative fault principles. It also includes language intended to preserve premises liability standards based on the entrant’s legal status.

The bill has not been enacted, and its prospects for passage remain uncertain. We will continue to monitor House Bill 4582 and related developments and will advise clients of significant changes and their potential implications for claims handling and litigation.

MBL Partner Sarah Brutman and Associate Amy Schroeder are monitoring this bill and can be contacted with any questions. Our team is available to discuss your specific matters and help assess next steps.