A Missouri appellate court this week reinstated a premises liability suit against a state university after determining questions remained regarding what caused a visitor to fall while walking on campus.

The record “contains competent evidence of two plausible, but contradictory, accounts of the essential facts,” regarding what caused plaintiff Mary Beth Fryman’s fall on a set of stairs on the Southeast Missouri State University campus, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District held. The appellate court reversed a summary judgment decision in favor of the university’s board of regents as the disputes remained over whether the stairs were defectively designed, and if that defect caused Fryman’s injury.