Slip and Falls: A Problem That Doesn't Slip Away

March 26, 2011 (Press-News.org) Someone slips and falls in a store or a restaurant. They are injured. The injured sues and the business loses the case or settles. One would think the first thing the business would do would be to fix the problem that caused the injury to avoid another injury, and in turn, another personal injury lawsuit.

But one would be wrong. A story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune tells the story of a woman injured in a slippery parking lot of a Denny's. The downspouts on the restaurant run under a sidewalk and into the parking lot. During the winter, the drain ices over. It was so slippery when she fell, that the paramedic almost fell on top of the injured women, because, he too, slipped.

The slip-and-fall occurred in 2009, and in January of 2010, her attorney's investigator was able to photograph the very same condition that caused her injuries. Denny's had taken no action to fix the problem. This situation replays itself at businesses throughout the country, even in Florida - no action is taken to correct dangerous conditions, such as slippery floors, accumulating rain or snow or stairway cracks. The result is that patrons of the business continue to be prone to a slip-and-fall injury.

Premises Liability Suits - Just a Cost of Doing Business?

"Most companies look at slip-and-fall injuries as a cost of doing business," an expert witness in the case said. The slip-and-fall expert has served as a witness in more than 400 slip-and-fall cases, for both plaintiffs and defendants.

Plaintiffs often state that part of the rationale for bringing a premises liability lawsuit is that they want to help prevent someone else from suffering their fate. Most people expect that a business would want to avoid being found liable for the same problem twice, and would therefore correct the defect or condition that caused the injury.

The reality is businesses are often very adverse to changing structures or procedures when they aren't required by law. It is often less expensive to ignore a problem and risk the chance of another accident, than spend money up front to remedy the situation.

Every year, approximately one million people are hurt in slip-and-fall accidents. Of the million slip-and-fall injuries, about 16,000 victims suffer injuries that result in death, according to a 2008 report from the Chicago insurance company CNA. In fact, falls are the leading cause of nonfatal accidents treated in emergency rooms.

In many grocery stores, there are many chances for dangerous conditions to develop; produce falls out of open display cases, bottles are knocked off shelves and break, customers open food and eat it in the store, often leaving a trail of debris behind them. A store is obligated to maintain their premises in a safe condition cleaning up spills and removing hazards from aisles. How well they achieve this is, however, questionable.

Method of Operation to Neglect Poor Conditions

In a Florida case, Owens v. Publix Supermarkets, a former grocery store manager's testimony describes how things actually worked: "At trial, Jose Alvarez, the former store manager of B & B Cash Grocery Store testified that the store kept daily inspection reports "to remind us to check the store on an hourly basis."

Nevertheless, when asked if the store was swept hourly, Alvarez replied, "To be honest, no. We try to do it but, no. We tried to sweep as many times as we could." Alvarez conceded that no one was assigned the duty to sweep the floors at a certain time every day, and that all of the daily inspection reports were completed at one time.

He admitted that the cleaning reports, which indicated that someone went around inspecting at a specific time, were false. Alvarez further stated that he was aware that these inspection reports were being falsified, that everyone at the management level of the store knew about it. An assistant manager who came from another store even told him that it was done that way in every store in which he had worked.

Stores simply don't want to hire the requisite number of employees necessary to instantly clean up spills. The clean-up duty is rarely seen as attractive by the employees. Their employers would rather use them doing something that makes money, like stocking shelves or working a checkout. As a result, dangerous conditions exist virtually all of the time, which are hazardous to customers, but are seen as merely a cost of doing business.

Contact a Florida Personal Injury Attorney

If you have been injured in a slip-and-fall accident, if possible, use a cell phone to take pictures of the conditions that caused your fall. It is very important to have evidence of the circumstance of your fall available, as it will be helpful in determining the viability of a potential premises liability case. It is also important to contact an experienced Florida personal injury lawyer after a slip-and-fall accident. An attorney will be able to help you evaluate your claim and secure the proper documentation of the dangerous condition.

Article provided by Feldman Fox & Morgado PA
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