What is a Premise Liability Case?

             Premise liability is a legal action against a property owner when an individual claims to have been injured by a dangerous condition on the property. Premise liability is considered an ordinary negligence claim with simple elements of duty, breach, and proximate cause. The balance of individual rights and property owner rights, however, transforms these simple elements into a treacherous path to a successful financial recovery.

How to Determine a Property Owner’s Duty

            As with all negligence claims, the legal analysis begins with ascertaining the duty property owners have to others on the property. Normally the negligence duty is defined as “ordinary care” and applies to all claimants equally. Premise liability differs as the duty depends on the status of the claimant on the property. Premise liability creates three categories of claimants which include: an invitee, a licensee, and a trespasser.

            The invitee is the most protected and the property owner’s duty to the invitee is to exercise ordinary care by inspecting the property and making the property reasonably safe or give adequate warning. The invitee status arises when the claimant was invited to the property for the mutual benefit of the property owner and individual. Common examples include a patron at a grocery store or restaurant, a tenant or guest at an apartment building or other establishment.

            The next level is a licensee which the property owner owes a duty to exercise ordinary care by making the property reasonably safe or give adequate warning. Under this category the property owner does not have a duty to inspect the property as is required under the invitee status. The licensee status applies when the person entered the property with the property owner’s permission but for the sole benefit of the individual. Common examples include a social guest to your home, volunteer rescuer, employee off duty in breakroom, or a neighbor borrowing your tools.

            The last category is the trespasser and arises when an individual enters the property without legal authority or the property owner’s permission. Here the property owner owes no ordinary care duty but a limited duty to refrain from injuring the person willfully, wantonly, or through gross negligence. Property owners have no duty to anticipate trespassers or to inspect and make the property safe for the trespasser. 

            The claimant’s status may fluctuate depending on the facts and the physical location of where the injury occurs. This change is claimant status is common in employer-employee situations. When an employee is on duty and located in her assigned workstation that employee is an invitee, but if the employee is off duty and in the breakroom the employee is downgraded to licensee status. Now consider if the employee is off duty and sneaks into an unauthorized room, she is now a trespasser. The claimant’s status at the time of injury determines the property owner’s duty.     

What is a Dangerous Condition Under Premise Liability

            Under Texas law, a dangerous condition is a situation on a property that presents an unreasonable risk of harm to others and which a reasonably prudent person would foresee a sufficient probability of a harmful event. The foreseeability part of the test is necessary to impose a legal duty because our society agrees that a defendant cannot be responsible for harm that cannot be anticipated. Put differently, if the property owner could not anticipate the harmful event than the property owner could not have prevented or warned about the dangerous condition. The determination of the dangerous condition is determined by the facts of the case. Common examples of dangerous conditions include trip hazards in walkways, slippery floor conditions, elevation changes in walkways, or defective handrails.   

Property Owner’s Knowledge of the Dangerous Condition

            To be successful in a legal action for premise liability the invitee must establish that the defendant (i.e. property owner) knew about the dangerous condition or the defendant should have known about the condition. Many times, this element—defendant’s knowledge—is the most difficult to prove. The knowledge element can be established in many different forms such as customer complaints about a potentially dangerous condition, defendant’s employees witnessing prior similar incidents, or defendant created the dangerous condition.

             In more difficult cases, the invitee can prove that the defendant should have known about the condition—this is referred to as constructive knowledge. This analysis requires an investigation into the property owner’s duty to inspect the property to identify a potentially dangerous condition. Under constructive knowledge, the dangerous condition must have existed long enough so that the defendant has time to inspect and discover the dangerous condition. Factors courts use to establish constructive knowledge include length of time condition existed, defendant’s proximity to the condition, or the condition’s conspicuousness.   

How does a Property Owner Breach the Duty to Invitees

            Once the level of duty and knowledge is established the plaintiff must prove the property owner breached the duty owed to the invitee. The plaintiff can prove that the defendant never inspected the property to discover potentially dangerous conditions and this is sufficient in some cases. If the defendant conducted proper inspections or had knowledge of the condition, the next analysis is whether the condition had adequate warnings or was made reasonably safe. If the evidence documents no warning was provided and no effort to make the condition safe the elements are established.

Conclusion

            Premise liability cases are often factually difficult cases to win, and Texas law offers many protections to property owners in this context. Because of the difficulty in proving these cases and the complexities of the potential injuries that may arise, selecting a skilled litigator is critical to the success of the claim. Meagan and Holland DeKeyzer have handled a variety of premise liability cases from the common trip and fall to complex sexual assaults (at both the trial and appellate levels) and have the experience needed to successfully navigate these matters.

            Contact DeKeyzer Law at (713) 904-4004 for a FREE consultation to discuss the facts of your premise liability case.