Business owners have a responsibility to maintain a safe environment for employees and visitors. However, a company that rents space from that business owner must abide by similar standards.
If your knee injury is the result of a slip-and-fall at the neighborhood deli, who is at fault?
Situations covered
There are many kinds of harmful incidents that fall under the heading of premises liability. A defect in a smoke alarm could cause a fire, or smoke inhalation at the very least. A robbery could take place because the appropriate security measures were not in place. Someone could drown in a hotel pool or suffer a bite from a dog in a supermarket parking lot. A slip-and-fall incident is one of the most common examples of premises liability because it can happen anywhere under a variety of conditions. For example, your fall at the deli may have been the result of something as simple as an uneven floor tile.
How businesses are culpable
Although most business owners understand that they have a duty to keep people safe while on their premises, some do not know the extent of that responsibility and assume liability will mainly fall on the landlord. The owners of the deli where you fell might not have read the fine print in the rental agreement they signed: Many such agreements stipulate that tenants must assume full responsibility for maintaining safety.
Assigning fault
An experienced attorney will tell you that a thorough investigation will commence to determine how the accident in which you sustained your knee injury occurred. Both the local deli and the landlord may be accountable, and your attorney will work toward pursuing full and fair compensation on your behalf. From a “lesson-learned” point of view, your unfortunate injury may be a wake-up call for these businesses to work more diligently to maintain a safe environment for employees, customers, vendors and anyone else who enters their property.