Personal Injury Lawyers, Waldorf MD: Can More Than One Person or Business Be Responsible for a Slip And Fall Accident?
Yes. Indeed, it is somewhat common for more than one business or person to be sued for a slip and fall accident (or a trip and fall accident) here in Waldorf, MD. Further, it is not uncommon for more than one person/business to be held legally liable for a Charles County, Maryland personal injury accident. In a case of joint liability, the jury assigns a percentage fault to each of the parties held responsible. Thus, if the verdict is for $1 million and three parties are each assigned a 33.3% level of responsibility, then each defendant would be responsible for one-third of the verdict.
How can more than one person/business be responsible?
It is possible for more than one person or business to be held legally liable for an accident because it is common that more than one party has committed some form of negligence that led to the accident.
In Maryland, compensation for accidents is governed by the laws and doctrines of negligence. To be awarded compensation, a victim of an accident must show the four elements of negligence: duty, breach, causation, and injury. For any given accident, several different parties might have breached the same or various duties. For example, every person and business has a duty of care. Generally, this means a duty to be careful to not cause injuries or create situations where injuries are foreseeable. In Charles County, Maryland car accident cases, for example, this duty is the duty to drive carefully and be watchful for others on the road.
In slip/trip and fall cases, the duty of care means avoiding any dangerous condition on the land or in the premises. Owners can be held liable if a dangerous condition exists, that was known, that could result in a foreseeable accident and about which the landowner did not take precautions (like fixing the condition or putting up warnings). But, this duty of care is not owed just by the landowner, but by tenants and others acting on behalf of either.
Let’s look at a simple example involving a hypothetical floor mat placed before an entry door at a business or restaurant. Assume that the mat does not lie completely flat and that an edge of the mat is wrinkled and raised creating the risk of an accident. Let’s also assume that a customer does, indeed, trip on the upraised edge of the mat and falls. The fall caused serious injuries in our hypothetical.
In this hypothetical, the main party who is responsible will be the owner of the business. The business owner was the party who most likely knew of the dangerous condition and the party most capable of fixing the problem or of giving sufficient warning to customers. In this hypothetical, the business is a tenant. Under some conditions, even if a tenant is primarily responsible, a landlord can also be held legally responsible. This is more common where the slip/trip and fall accident occurs in common areas like on a sidewalk or parking area.
In addition, there might be other potential parties with legal responsibility. The business might have a cleaning service that is responsible for laying mats before the doors each day. Alternatively, the business might have a service that delivers clean mats once a week. In either circumstance, that third-party vendor might be potentially legally responsible because they knew of the defective mat (and, maybe, even placed the defective mat on the floor on the day of the accident).
As can be seen, slip/trip and fall accidents in Maryland are complicated and multifaceted. If you have a personal injury case here in Maryland, call the Maryland personal injury lawyers here at the Law Office of Robert Castro.
Contact Waldorf, MD Personal Injury Attorney Robert Castro Today
This article has been provided by the Law Office of Robert Castro. For more information or questions, contact our office to speak to an experienced Maryland personal injury lawyer at (301) 870-1200. We are Waldorf, MD, Personal Injury lawyers. Our address is 2670 Crain Highway, Waldorf, MD 20601.
