A premises owner or legal entity in control owe members of the public a duty of care to exercise reasonable care in keeping the premises reasonably safe. This “duty of care” obligates people who own, possess, or control property to exercise reasonable care to:
A property owner or occupier who is negligent fails to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition may be liable for any injuries sustained on the property. There may be multiple parties that share responsibility for the danger that exists on the property. For example, if the property owner hires an independent contractor to fix an unsafe condition and that contractor negligently fails to make the condition safe, the property owner and the repairman could both be responsible for the condition of the property.
Premises liability accidents can occur in just about any type of property, including department stores and malls, office buildings, commercial buildings, public property, private homes or virtually any structure. The most common accidents that occur on these properties due to unsafe conditions that exist are:
Besides maintaining a reasonably safe premises, owners and occupiers may also owe a duty to take reasonable steps to secure common areas against foreseeable criminal acts of third parties likely to occur absent such measures. Businesses must take reasonable steps to secure their premises, and adjacent common areas within their control against reasonably foreseeable criminal acts of third parties. The extent to which a business must take measures to prevent criminal conduct is determined largely under general negligence principles. The most important consideration is the foreseeability of third persons’ criminal conduct, determined primarily by incidents of prior similar conduct. Other factors include the closeness of connection between defendant’s conduct and the injury suffered; the “moral blame” attached to defendant’s conduct; the extent of the burden to defendant and consequences to the community of imposing a duty of care with resulting liability for breach; and the availability, cost and prevalence of insurance for the risk.
Prior similar acts alone however do not demonstrate an absence of foreseeability. Even without prior conduct, a landowner is not relieved from responsibility for the foreseeable consequences of its acts. Instead, it is measured by what is more probable than not in the setting of modern life that a reasonably thoughtful person would take account of it in guiding their conduct. Prior similar incidents are helpful to determine what is foreseeable but are unnecessary.
Premises liability accidents may not be as noticeable as a car accident, with mangled metal and leaking oil, but the wake of devastation can be just as severe. Many victims deal with the pain from their injuries for the rest of their lives. Common premises liability injuries include:
These casualties should not force those to suffer alone. With the right law firm, we will work diligently and efficiently to evaluate the nature and extent of what happened, establish clearly defined theories of liability, and work with renown health care providers to give these injuries people the ability to hopefully get back on their feet. With our lawyers standing by to discuss how this premises accident affected your life, call us to see what we can do.