Slip-and-Fall Accidents

February 3, 2016

The Enforceability of Liability Release Waivers in Virginia Courts

When someone joins a gym or engages in any type of pay-to-play activity, such as bungee jumping, skiing, or river rafting, the company providing the service will often request that the person sign a liability release waiver before participating in the activity. These waivers most often contain fine print and are rarely read word-for-word, but they do contain important information about the rights that the person participating in the activity is giving up.

For example, most liability release waivers will absolve the provider of any liability that could normally arise from the negligent conduct of the business or any of its employees. This may act to prevent someone who is injured while engaging in the activity from seeking compensation for their injuries, even though the business may have been negligent in creating or failing to correct a hazard.

Liability waivers are not always enforceable, however. Virginia courts will normally uphold waivers only as long as they are appropriate and do not go beyond their permissible scope. For example, a company will not normally be permitted to ask a customer to release the company from liability for the reckless or intentional acts of its employees. A liability release waiver that attempts to do so will likely be determined to be invalid.

January 20, 2016

Couple Sues Auction House after Wife Injured in Slip-and-Fall Accident

by Sidney Schupak, Esq.

Businesses and organizations have a legal responsibility to maintain safe premises for members of the public who have been explicitly or implicitly invited onto the premises while they are engaging in business or the location is otherwise open to the public. Under Virginia law, a person who enters a business while it is open is known as an “invitee” to the premises when the visit is of common interest to the business owner and the visitor. In such a case, a business owner has a duty to use reasonable care to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition, as well as to warn the invitee of any hidden dangers that are known to the landowner. If someone is injured by a dangerous condition as an invitee, they may be entitled to compensation.

Woman Falls on a Wet Floor While Touring an Auction House

According to one local news source, a married couple recently filed a West Virginia slip-and-fall lawsuit against an auction house, alleging that the owner of the premises did not exercise due care in keeping the premises safe. According to a local news report, the woman alleges that she was injured when she slipped and fell on a wet floor, and that there was not an appropriate warning to alert her to the hazard. The lawsuit is seeking damages for bodily injuries, pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and medical expenses. The suit also claims the woman’s husband has suffered a loss of spousal consortium and is also entitled to additional damages.

January 6, 2016

Court Determines Hospital Slip-and-Fall Is Not a “Medical Malpractice” Case

by Sidney Schupak, Esq.

Earlier last month, a State Supreme Court issued an opinion reversing the lower court’s dismissal of a plaintiff’s claim, based on the fact that the plaintiff failed to comply with the procedural requirements of a medical malpractice claim under the state’s laws. In the case, Galvan v. Memorial Hermann Hospital System, the Supreme Court of Texas ultimately determined that since there was not a sufficient nexus between the alleged injury and the hospital’s provision of health care, the case was not subject to the heightened requirements of a medical malpractice case.

The Facts of the Case

In Galvan v. Memorial Hermann Hospital System, the plaintiff was a woman who was visiting a relative at the defendant hospital. The plaintiff was walking from the hospital’s pharmacy to her relative’s room when she slipped on a puddle of water that was coming from under a restroom door. The woman filed a lawsuit against the hospital, seeking compensation for her injuries.

In response, the hospital asked the court to dismiss the case because the plaintiff failed to submit an expert report, as is required under state law for all medical malpractice cases. The lower court denied the hospital’s motion, but the intermediate court reversed that decision. The plaintiff then appealed to the state’s supreme court.