Articles Posted in Premises Liability

One of the advantages/disadvantages of my job as a Central New York and Syracuse personal injury lawyer is that I am acutely aware of all the dangers lurking out there. The “advantage” is that I avoid some dangers most people don’t even think about. The “disadvantage” is that I worry too much! For example, when the weather is getting warmer, and I see icicles, I am careful to avoid walking under them. If I have to pass under them, I do so quickly, and I keep an eye on them.

With the weather freezing and then warming in Central New York, icicles can be dangerous. The warming weather can loosen them. They can then fall like heavy spears on your head. Icicles can weigh as much as 500 pounds. Back in 1978, a block of ice weighing several hundred pounds fell off the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, and killed a young woman who just happened to be walking along the sidewalk.

You may be wondering about liability for falling icicles. New York falling-icicle liability law is really the same as for any New York premises liability case. An owner of a property has a duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition, and to correct unsafe conditions he or she is or should be aware of. This includes posting reasonable warnings.

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Now that the snow’s finally here in Central New York, it’s time for this Central and Syracuse New York slip and fall lawyer to blog about New York snow removal liability. When can a property owner be held liable for failure to remove snow and ice that causes a slip and fall injury?

Here are a few ground rules. First, in New York, if it’s snowing fairly hard, a landowner cannot be held liable for failing to remove snow until “a reasonable time after” it stops snowing. This is known as the “storm in progress doctrine”. It is meant to give property owners a kind of grace period while the snow is still falling. New York law deems it unreasonable to require landowners to remove every flake as it hits ground! The doctrine is not limited to blizzard conditions, but also applies in less severe, but still inclement, winter weather.

As a Central and Syracuse New York accident lawyer, I had been expecting a story like this since last Friday. Why? Because last Friday was “black” Friday. Read on.

Today news sources report that a western New York man was injured, though thankfully not seriously, when he found himself on the bottom of a pile of bargain-crazed shoppers on Black Friday. The deal-hunters had stormed an entrance into a Buffalo Target store at its 4:00 a.m. opening

Target has promised to improve its “Black Friday crowd management plan” for next year.

As a Central New York and Syracuse slip-and-fall lawyer, I review a lot of restaurant and store slip-and-fall cases. But I only agree to handle about 1 out of every 5 of them. Why? Let’s take a typical restaurant slip-and-fall-in-a-soda-spill case. In most such cases, you can’t prove that the restaurant was responsible for the spill that the client slipped in. Usually, the client has no way of knowing how long the spill had been there. A careless customer may have spilled it only a few minutes before the client slipped in it. Generally, unless we can prove that someone reported the spill to the restaurant (and they failed to clean it up) or that the spill had been there for a considerable period of time so that the restaurant should have noticed it by conducting reasonable periodic inspections, the slip-and-fall victim has no case. That’s basic New York slip-and-fall law!

I came across a recent case that demonstrates what a good slip-and-fall case looks like. A federal jury in Hawaii awarded a slip-and-fall victim $5.67 million dollars to compensate her for a serious spinal cord injuries she sustained at a McDonald’s restaurant.

Why was the McDonalds’ restaurant found responsible for her slip-and-fall injury? Plaintiff was able to prove that, at the time of the accident, the restaurant crew had failed to clean the floor for a significant period of time. As a result, a greasy film had formed at the spot where the woman eventually slipped and fell.

Yesterday I blogged about New York personal injury liability for a Park owner’s failure to properly maintain trails and hiking areas, and for failing to place appropriate warnings signs. What sparked off that blog entry was a tragic hiker accident in Letchworth State Park in which a 19-year old hiker fell to his death into the gorge.

Now let’s discuss common sense safety rules for hikers that can prevent many tragedies on the trail. A hiker is, in the first instance, responsible for his or her own safety. A safe hike begins before the hike. Proper preparation and planning, including making a pack list, which should always include: proper clothing, footwear, appropriate gear, a cell phone, a compass, or a gps navigator, plenty of water, food and a first aid kit.

Learn about the area you are hiking ahead of time. Take recent guidebooks and maps of the area with you. Check weather forecasts before you set out. Do not attempt a hiking excursion that is beyond your physical abilities or health limitations. Let friends or family know where you plan on hiking and when you plan on returning. Bring lots of water on a hot day.

Letchworth is one of several upstate New York State parks. It is the deepest gorge anywhere east of the Rockies and is sometimes called “the Grand Canyon of the East”. I personally have spent many splendid, sun-drenched days hiking its trails, and driving or bicycling around its “rim” to take in the spectacular view. It is “gorge-ous”!

But unfortunately, it can also be deadly. Case on point: Local news media sources report that a 19-year old hiker died after suffering a 300-foot fall into the gorge at around 9:30 p.m. this Saturday. No other details are available. What makes this tragedy (only 19 years old!!) so, well, tragic, is that it could almost certainly have been avoided.

Although hiking, especially in State Parks, is a healthy, enjoyable good-weather activity, two human failings (or a combination of them) cause almost all injuries or death on the trail: (1) The Park owner’s failure to properly maintain the trails and area and to place appropriate warnings signs and (2) hikers’ failure to follow common sense safety rules. In today’s blog post, I will talk about number (1), and in tomorrow’s, number (2).

Let’s clear this up from the get-go: The owner of the property where you slipped or tripped and fell is NOT AUTOMATICALLY liable for your fall and resulting injuries. As the plaintiff in a New York premises liability lawsuit, you have the burden of proving that the owner of the property maintained the property in an UNREASONABLY UNSAFE CONDITION.

Ok, what does THAT mean? Several things: First, you have to show that the owner could have done something to avoid your getting injured on his property. And the owner had to have time to do it. Let’s take a supermarket, for example. Sure, the supermarket makes a lot of money. But it is not God. It cannot predict that another shopper is going to drop a jar of apple sauce in the “fruits and vegetable” aisle 2 minutes before you happen to stroll down looking for a can of kidney beans. So when you slip and fall on the apple sauce, no jury on God’s earth is going to hold the supermarket liable. In fact, they might find it is your entire fault for not watching where you are going.

On the other hand, if you can somehow prove that the smashed apple-sauce jar was lying there for an hour, a jury is likely to be on your side. With all that money the supermarket is making, it sure ought to have a few employees meandering up and down those aisles every half-an-hour or so looking for customer spills.

Sometime ago I blogged about how the omnipresence of cell phones with cameras has been a game-changer for many Central New York and Syracuse accident victims. The evidence of the at-fault person’s or corporation’s negligence can be “snapped” right at the scene with the cell phone camera. This is important because often the evidence disappears within hours, for example, where you slip and fall on an unplowed, unsalted walkway in a Central New York winter.

Another game-changer for Syracuse and Central New York personal injury cases (and for such cases everywhere) is the omnipresence of surveillance videos. Now almost all major stores, including supermarkets, have surveillance cameras filming in almost every nook and cranny.

How does this help New York personal injury attorneys prove liability in personal injury lawsuits? Here’s an example. A woman slips and falls in the produce section of a major Syracuse supermarket. Turns out she slipped on a piece of tomato.

Imagine you are just kicking back on your porch enjoying this great spring weather in Syracuse, New York, hanging with some buddies, maybe having a beer when —- BANG — you wake up in pain, lying on the ground below.

This is what happened Saturday at an apartment on the corner of Lynwood Avenue and James Street in Syracuse. The porch just collapsed with no warning, dropping the three people sitting on it to the ground below.

Central New York porch, balcony or deck collapse lawsuits are not as uncommon as you may think. The Auburn New York personal injury law office of Michaels Bersani Kalabanka has handled several such cases.