Dangerous Property

Injured by Dangerous Property

If you have been injured in an accident on another person’s or company’s property, you may be entitled to monetary damages for that accident. If a property owner knew or should’ve known there was a dangerous condition on the property, and failed to warn or to make the condition safe, anyone injured because of that dangerous condition can take legal action against the property owner.

Be Aware of Common Dangerous Property Conditions

There are many dangerous property conditions that could cause a person to be injured. One of the most common dangerous property conditions on which people are injured is slippery conditions, such as a spill inside a business. Other dangerous property conditions could include defective guardrails, uneven pavement, bad lighting, improper security, falling objects, tripping hazards, poorly designed ramps or stairs, hidden hazards such as holes, a lack of guardrails, and cluttered walkways. If any of those conditions causes an accident, the property owner can be held responsible.

In order to hold a property owner responsible for a dangerous condition on property, four things must be proven. First, it must be shown that the defendant owed a duty to the plaintiff to keep the property safe – for example, a business owner owes a duty to customers to keep the business safe. Second, it must be shown that the defendant breached that duty by failing to fix the dangerous condition. It must also be shown that the breach caused the plaintiff’s injury. Finally, the accident victim must have suffered damages as a result.

Most Common Cases

The most common types of accidents resulting from a dangerous condition on property are slip and fall accidents. Liability for slip and fall accidents occurs when a property owner knew or should have known of a slippery condition on the property but failed to clean it up, and a customer or visitor slips on the condition and is injured. If the person injured can prove that the spill was on the property for a significant amount of time and wasn’t cleaned up, the property owner can be held liable.

Other Cases

Some other common examples of dangerous property conditions for which injured parties can sue are:

• Tenant suing an apartment complex for failing to provide proper lighting in a dangerous part of town
• Guest suing a hotel for inadequate guardrails over a balcony that caused a serious fall
• Hospital patient suing a hospital for failing to fix a hidden hole in the hospital’s parking lot that caused visitors to trip

However, although property owners are required to make property safe for visitors, they aren’t absolute insurers of their guests’ safety. They are obligated to take proper safety precautions, but can’t be held liable for every accident that occurs on a piece of property. It’s up to the injured party to prove that the dangerous property condition existed for a sufficient length of time that the property owner should have known about it and should have cleaned it up. For example, if a customer in a supermarket dropped a bottle of bleach on the floor but failed to notify anyone, and another customer came by 30 seconds later and slipped in the bleach, the supermarket may not be held liable – it would be hard to discover the spill on the floor in that amount of time.

Injured by Dangerous Property in the Bay Area? Contact Liberty Law

At Liberty Law Micha Star Liberty believes that visitors who are injured by a dangerous property condition are entitled to legal compensation for those injuries. If you have been injured by a dangerous property condition in the Oakland – San Francisco Bay area, call Micha Star Liberty, premises liability attorney at Liberty Law at 415-896-1000 or 510-645-1000. She works with clients in Berkeley, Hayward, Tracy, Fairfield, and the surrounding areas. Call today to learn more.