In premises liability cases, property owners are generally required to exercise ordinary care to keep their property safe. The duty of care owed by a property owner or occupier varies depending on several factors, including the type of visitor:

• Invitees: These are people invited onto the property, either explicitly or implicitly, for business or commercial purposes. Property owners owe the highest duty of care to invitees and must inspect the property regularly to identify and fix dangerous conditions.
• Licensees: Licensees are individuals who are on the property for social reasons or other purposes with the owner’s consent. Property owners must warn licensees of known dangers but are not required to inspect the property for hidden hazards.
• Trespassers: Property owners generally owe a limited duty of care to trespassers, with the exception of child trespassers who may be attracted to dangerous conditions (known as attractive nuisances) like pools.

While premises cases can vary in scope, complexity, and even the type of visitor involved, they all generally concern the question of whether a property owner failed to uphold their duty to ensure a reasonably safe environment. Some ways that a property owner can negligently fail to uphold their duty include:

• Failing to clean up spills or address hazards that could lead to slip-and-fall accidents.
• Ignoring broken lighting or inadequate security, increasing the risk of assault.
• Failing to maintain structural elements such as stairs, handrails, or flooring.
• Not repairing faulty gates or fencing around swimming pools.
• Ignoring known fire hazards, broken smoke detectors, or carbon monoxide risks.

Premises cases are intensely fact specific, so determining whether a property owner is negligent will depend on the specific facts involved. For example, juries in these cases (if and when they go to trial) are instructed to take many factors into account when determining whether a property owner’s actions were “reasonable” or whether they constituted negligence. Some of these include:

• The type of business or property (i.e. is it a nightclub with a greater risk or altercations, or a theme park that should have specific safety policies in place).
• The dangerous condition involved and the foreseeability of injuries / injury risks.
• Whether property owners knew or should have known about the hazardous conditions (i.e. did they have actual or constructive knowledge, were there prior incidents or violations, etc.).
• How reasonable or difficult it was to protect against injury risks. 

In general, we know that there are many ways that property owners can negligently fail to uphold their duties and laws in place that allow victims harmed by such negligence to take legal action and recover their damages. At Morrison & Hughes, our attorneys have extensive experience handling premises liability claims involving a range of properties, conditions, and circumstances. We can review your matter, discuss your rights and options, and explain what we can do to help.