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Premises Liability
Premises Liability | Premises Liability: Arizona Lawyers |
 Someone can get hurt as a result of a dangerous condition on a piece of
property. This could be a slip and fall because of dangerous flooring, it could
be an assault and battery because of lack of security at a club or bar, or it
could even be falling down stairs. These are just some of the examples of a
premises liability claim. The potential defendant could be a private homeowner, a business, or even a government entity. The source of recovery could a home owner’s insurance policy, a commercial liability policy, or in the case of a government defendant, the government would have a recovery fund. The owner and possessor of a premises has the duty to keep the premises reasonably safe from dangerous conditions as to invitees. This is a non-delegable duty, and therefore, fault of another in creating the condition is legally attributable to the possessor. One important issue in slip and fall cases is transitory versus static conditions. A transitory condition is one that is constant, such as water, fluid, or other debris deposited upon a floor, and therefore, is a condition of which the defendant can claim lack of notice. This forces the plaintiff to develop evidence of actual or constructive knowledge on the part of the defendant, or be left with either no case at all, or a case triable only on a mode of operation theory. On the other hand, the defendant will generally acknowledge that foreign substances on the floor do constitute dangerous conditions and will tout its safety procedures. Thus, if you can prove notice, you can usually prove liability. A static condition is one that is constant or from which one may infer some temporal duration that the defendant cannot credibly deny at least constructive knowledge. In a static condition case, the defendant will suggest either that the condition is not dangerous, that it was open and obvious, or that the defendant acted reasonably in attempting to safeguard people like the plaintiff from the condition. In these kinds of cases, the plaintiff typically will have to have an expert prove that the condition is dangerous and that the premises of the defendant were not reasonably safe. Safety standards will be important, and because the standards and codes in and of themselves are party neutral, such evidence can be very powerful. One potential issue when dealing with a government defendant is sovereign immunity, which means the government can limit its own liability. In such cases, the government requires a “notice of claim”, which means the plaintiff must notify the responsible government entity within 180 days of the potential claim. If you miss that strict deadline, you have missed the statute of limitations and you cannot sue the government entity. If you or a loved one has been hurt in a premises liability accident, please contact us today to get the help you deserve. |
