This article covers the law of premise liability, which covers the legal responsibility of owners and occupiers of real property for the injuries of visitors that sustained injuries on the property resulting from the owner or occupiers’ failure to maintain their property in a safe condition and in good repair.
Common Accidents Giving Rise To Premise Liability:
- Slip, Trip, and Fall Accidents
- Building Code Violations Creating Unsafe Conditions
- Defects And Dangerous Conditions On Property
- Inadequate Lighting and Inadequate Security
- Swimming Pool Liability – Lack of Child Safety Fencing
- Unkept Supermarket Flooring
- Restaurant Liability – Unsafe Conditions
- Unrestrained Dogs Harming Visitors
Business Owners Must Avoid Unreasonable Risks Of Injury To Customers
Most jurisdictions hold business owners to a relatively high standard of care by requiring they actively maintain a safe environment. Business owners have an affirmative duty to keep their property safe and avoid customer injuries.
Duty of Commercial Property Owners
Since the business owner receives monetary value from a business invitee, and because the owner, by virtue of their advertising campaigns urging customers to visit their place of business, most jurisdictions expect that businesses, especially those that are open to the general public, have a greater duty to provide safe and well-maintained conditions for their customers. This includes the duty to remove, repair, and eliminate potential dangers.
Duty to regularly inspect their premises
Supermarkets are notorious for customers slipping and falling on their floors, especially in their produce department, where slipping on a wet piece of cabbage can cause serious harm, especially to the disabled or senior citizens.
Supermarkets, in particular, must be exceptionally vigilant in promptly removing or otherwise eliminating potential dangers and by providing the shopper with adequate warnings.
Risk management
Supermarkets have risk management departments that ensure the store can prove they have been responsible by producing sweep and inspection logs should someone fall and claim the store had not been diligent in inspecting their property.
By producing sweep logs, stores can assert they responsibly manage their inspection and cleanup process.
The supermarket often claims they would have remedied the danger if they only had more notice of the dangerous condition.
Reasonable Notice
Most jurisdictions have tried to establish what constitutes reasonable notice. Most jurisdictions agree that they must immediately eliminate the danger once the store is first made aware of the dangerous condition.
Supermarkets retain risk assessment consultants
In commercial premise liability cases proving the store had notice or should have had notice, they would have taken immediate actions to remedy the situation.
The failure to have an inspection routine in place to detect such damages is central to a plaintiff’s claim.
In response, supermarkets hire expensive consultants to supervise their risk management departments. One way risk management tries to avoid liability is to claim they were following the strict inspection and cleaning guidelines established by independent expert safety consultants.
Video And Inspection Logs
In premise liability lawsuits, the defendant produces video and inspection logs as evidence to prove that the store had been responsible and diligent in its inspection process.
In doing so, the store could argue they never had actual notice of the dangerous condition, but if they had, they would have responded more quickly to make the condition safe.
Therefore, the supermarket will assert they should not be held liable for the shopper’s injuries.
Most jurisdictions have tried to establish what constitutes reasonable notice under these sorts of circumstances. The definition differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
However, almost all jurisdictions agree that once the store has notice of the dangerous condition, it is incumbent on them to remove the danger immediately.
Active Construction and Demolition Sites
The law requires a much higher standard of care to protect pedestrians walking near a construction area, especially if heavy equipment is being used.
Demolition and removal of heavy and hazardous debris
It is well settled in the courts that hazardous activities require much more care. In some jurisdictions, where there is a hazardous activity such as demolition or removing heavy steel and concrete slab, the court has no issue with qualifying the activity as unreasonably dangerous and even holding the defendants strictly liable for all injuries arising out of the hazardous activity.
Personal injury Attorney
If you have specific questions or require additional information about your legal rights and obligations, consult a verified Personal Injury Lawyer as soon as possible.
