Tom McCutcheon – Attorney at Law
I have always handled slip and fall cases. Lawyers call these “premises liability” cases. We get a lot of calls and talk with potential clients about these cases but there are a lot more slip and falls than there are lawsuits.
Let me share with you how the law analyzes slip and fall or premises liability cases. The law presumes that all land is always owned by some person or entity. The law classifies people who occupy the land of another into three groups. These three groups are defined or decided by how they are using the property where they were hurt.
The first group of people and the most common source of viable slip and fall cases are people who are on property for the benefit of the owner. That means if a person is injured while doing business in a store, they are an invitee. This would apply if they were buying insurance in an insurance agency or milk at the grocery store. These invitees are not “insured” against injury and there is no automatic (outside of workers compensation) liability for the property owner if someone is hurt. The property owner owes the person on their property the duty of keep their premises in a reasonably safe condition. What this means is that a store owner must not have a defect in the premises such as a door jam that is high or a floor that is wet or waxed without warning. A store owner is not responsible if another shopper spills or drops something slippery on the floor unless and until they either know that something is on the floor or enough time passes that they should have known. They are responsible if one of their own employees spills or drops something on the floor.
The second group of people are social guests. Those are defined by law as licensees and they may simply be a guest in a home. The duty owed to a licensee or a social guest is the warn them of known dangers. Obviously, they may not be willfully or wantonly injured. In other words, if you know of a dangerous condition that wouldn’t be obvious, you have to warn them. If you know your stairs are slippery or shaky, either repair them, don’t let others use them or put up a sign.
The third group of people are trespassers and as for people who are on land without the permission of the owner the duty owed to those people is that they may not be intentionally injured. There are cases where people have set traps or guns to go off in isolated cabins that have been broken into and that is absolutely prohibited by law. There are cases where land owners who used excessive force against a trespasser, such as shooting them as they are leaving, were successfully sued.
The most common defense to grocery store and other premises liability cases is that the person who fell and was injured does not know and cannot say what caused them to fall and/or how long the substance had been on the floor. Another common defense is that whatever they tripped over or slipped on was out in the open and would have been obvious had the person been using ordinary caution. This is the open and obvious defense which is a form of contributory negligence.
Buckle up and drive safely.
2210 Helton Drive
Florence, Alabama 35630
Telephone: 256-764-0112
Facsimile: 256-764-1124
