If I slip or trip and fall can I sue?
Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 362
Every time someone falls down, people make jokes that the injured person will end up "owning the place." What does the law say about a premise owner's potential liability if someone falls on your property?
In Alabama, and a few other states, it depends on the right, or lack thereof, that the person who fell had to be on the property. For example, the duty of a premise owner to someone who is trespassing on their property is very, very low. On the other hand, if someone is a "business invitee" - that is, if someone is on the property to benefit the property owner (like a customer of the store or restaurant) then the premise owner has a higher duty. However, that duty basically is not to be negligent - or in other words, to act as a reasonably safe business owner would act in similar circumstances.
Let's take a look at a couple of examples. Say you visit Wal-Mart or any store for that matter and another customer walking directly in front of tosses the proverbial banana peel. With your next step, you slip on it and break your neck. Can you sue Wal-Mart? Sure. Will you win? Absolutely not. You must show more than the fact that you fell on the store's premises and that you got hurt. You must show that the store was negligent. In the example above - what did the store do that was unreasonable? Not a thing. So, while you may have a claim against the person that tossed the peel (good luck recovering on that, unless the person happens to be Donald Trump or someone else of personal means) you do not have a claim against the store.
Let's vary the facts a bit. The same customer tosses the banana peel 8 hours before you enter the store. A manager sees it 15 minutes later and instructs an employee to clean it up. The employee gets distracted and does not do it. A couple of hours go by and the manager sees the peel again. He means to get on the employee for not picking up the peel, but he too gets distracted. Another couple of hours go by. Several other managers and employees see the peel, but do not remove it. You don't see the peel; slip and fall and break your neck. Negligence? Maybe - it'll depend on what the jury thinks. Was it reasonable for the store to leave the peel on its floor for 8 hours? Does the peel constitute a dangerous or hazardous condition? What about the customer - shouldn't he have seen and avoided the peel?
In my next blog, I'll address in more detail some of these issues and "affirmative defenses" So, the answer to the question is "yes" - if you fall you can sue, however, whether your lawsuit has any reasonable chance of success is another matter entirely.