We recently filed a lawsuit in San Antonio on behalf of a young woman that slipped and fell in a bathroom at an amusement park. The fall did not injure her but the big sharp piece of metal that was jutting out cut her arm wide open. The piece of metal was bent and twisted and sharp. It created an unreasonably dangerous condition on the premises.
Transcript:
ٍSpeaker: Welcome to Hill law firm cases. A podcast discussing real world cases handled by Justin Hill and The Hill law firm. For confidentiality reasons, names and amounts of any settlements have been removed. However, the facts are real and these are the cases we handle on a day-to-day basis.
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Speaker: Every case that comes into the office is different. One thing I can tell every client is that almost without fail the insurance company and defense attorneys will make up some excuse and some defense as to why. First, they’re not at fault and if they are at fault you’re not hurt and if you were hurt it wasn’t their fault. If you were hurt and the jury believes you’re hurt well you’re better now. No matter what the case or what the facts, I can count on one hand the number of times the other side is agreed they’re at fault, and they owe money.
We’re currently working on a case in which a young lady, less than 10 years old, went to the bathroom at an amusement park. Now, this bathroom was close to where the aquatic rides are located so the bathroom would get wet inside. The Aquatic Park knew that. They knew the bathrooms could get wet. It’s their duty to make sure that they have a flooring surface that does not get slippery when wet. These flooring surfaces exist and the amusement park knows that. This case was different. When this young lady slipped, her arm hit the side of the bathroom stall. That by itself should be fine.
However, the bathroom stall had a piece of metal, a metal flange that had been folded out. Essentially, a piece of metal was sticking out when it should not have. Our client’s arm hit this piece of metal as she was falling down. Her slip was due to the slippery floor but her cut that required 28 stitches down her arm was due to this metal flange that inexplicably was bent out facing outward. Sharp, rusty and exactly where somebody who fell who hit this bathroom stall would hit.
The insurance company called us and as they do, they had a defense. Their defense was well she slipped because it was wet, and she should’ve known it was wet. Sometimes I never know if they’re making up their defenses, or they just don’t understand the claim. I agreed with her that the floor was wet and our client slipped on a wet floor but that doesn’t excuse or changes the fact that there shouldn’t be a dangerous piece of metal sticking out from a bathroom stall. As I said earlier, they never admit to this but you could tell by her silence that she agreed that they had a dangerous premises defect in that bathroom and that premises defect led to this cut on my client’s arm.
Now, this young lady got 28 stitches. She’ll have a scar for life. She’s going to hear the defense say it’s her fault for slipping in a bathroom. The slip isn’t what caused her injury. That’s what premises liability cases are. That if a business wants you to come onto their property and spend money that they have to keep their premises in a safe condition. They have to remedy dangerous defects on the property, and they actually have to inspect and look out for them. They don’t get to just hide behind the log and when somebody is injured say, “Well, we didn’t know about it”. All too often that’s the attempt of companies and their insurance companies to try to avoid liability. However, in this case where this young lady slipped and fell in San Antonio and cut her arm open, they’re not going to be able to avoid liability with that excuse.
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