The ABC's of a Slip and Fall-Part 2-Your Status on the Property

After determining the identity of all potential defendants, the next step in the analysis is figuring out the Plaintiff's status on the property. When Colorado enacted its Premises Liability Statute, the legislature defined the duties of a landowner by first categorizing the different ways a Plaintiff might find themselves on the property. In other words, the legislature felt that the duty of a Landowner should be different for, say, a trespasser, than for a social guest. In the end, what emerged was three categories: Trespasser, Licensee, and Invitee.

Defining a trespasser seems pretty simple. First anybody that does not have permission to be on the property is a trespasser. However, defendants will sometimes try to assert that anytime someone is outside the area where they have permission, they are essentially a trespasser. This can be problematic when, for instance, someone with permission to be in one place on a property goes somewhere else. An example makes this clear. Imagine a customer to a car dealership. As long as the customer is on the sales floor or out in the parking lot where the for-sale cars are, the customer would be considered an invitee. However, if the customer decided to walk to the service area and climb into the pit where oil changes are done, that customer may be considered a trespasser for premises liability purposes.

As to a trespasser, a Landowner is liable only for damages willfully or deliberately caused by the landowner.

A Licensee is a person who enters or remains on the land of another for the licensee's own convenience or to advance his own interests, pursuant to the landowner's permission or consent. Licensee includes a social guest. Interestingly, there is a lower duty to someone socially invited to a property than to someone who is an invitee.

As to a Licensee, a Landowner is liable for his unreasonable failure to exercise reasonable care with respect to dangers created by the landowner, of which the landowner actually knew; or his unreasonable failure to warn of dangers he actually knew about and that wasn't ordinarily found on the property.

An invitee is defined as a person who enters or remains on the land of another to transact business in which the parties are mutually interested, or who enters or remains on such land in response to the landowner's express or implied representation that the public is requested, expected, or intended to enter or remain. Customers of retail stores are licensees.

As to an invitee, the Landowner is liable for his unreasonable failure to take reasonable steps to protect against a dangerous condition that he knew or should have known of. The vast majority of viable slip and fall cases filed involve invitees that are hurt because of some dangerous condition.

To really complicate the above, keep in mind that parties will almost never admit what the plaintiff's status is or was on the date of the accident. Under the law, it is the judge that gets to decide the plaintiff's status. Presumably, this will happen at trial, but competent attorneys can sometimes have that issue resolved earlier.

If you have questions or would like to discuss the facts of your case, feel free to visit http://www.personalinjuryco.com/ or contact us directly at 303-597-4500.

ABC's of a Slip and Fall Accidents-Part 1-Who is the Defendant?

In Colorado, slip and fall cases against landowners are governed by Colorado's Premises Liability Act ("PLA") and not under traditional negligence principles. This can radically alter the analysis of whether you have a case.

The same analysis is used for all cases, at least at the beginning. The first step is to determine the proper Defendant. Landowner is defined as "including, without limitation, an authorized agent or a person in possession of real property and a person legally responsible for the condition of real property or for the activities conducted or circumstances existing on real property." C.R.S. 13-21-115(1) This means that, for purposes of applying the PLA, there may be many proper defendants. For instance, in a recent case, an employee fell on ice near the exit of her workplace. We pursued claims against the owner of the building, the property management company, and the landscape and snowplow company. Each defendant fit the definition of "landowner" and thus, were proper defendants under the PLA.

Many times landowners will contract with other parties to be responsible for certain tasks, such as snow removal. In Colorado, landowners can contract someone else into liability, but in most instances cannot contract themselves out of liability. It is particularly important to identify all possible defendants before a lawsuit is filed. It is also possible that not all defendants will fit the definition of a landowner. For instance, in another case, a landowner claimed that some outside party was responsible for creating the dangerous condition. If the landowner was right, the PLA would not apply and you would apply traditional negligence concepts. These cases are tricky and require professional assistance.

Once you have identified the proper defendants, the next step is to determine your status on the property relative to those defendants. This issue will be discussed in Slip and Fall Accidents-Part 2-Status on the Property. Feel free to visit http://www.personalinjuryco.com/ for additional information or to call us at 303-597-4500 to discuss the facts of your case.