Woman Breaks Leg, Suffers Concussion After Bathroom Slip And Fall

A woman has filed a personal injury lawsuit against a ski resort after she suffered a major slip and fall injury in the bathroom. According to the lawsuit, the woman suffered a concussion and broke her femur. The injury to her leg was severe enough to require surgery. The ski resort denies the allegations stating that the plaintiff’s injuries were either the result of “inherent risks” or pre-existing conditions.

Ski resort waivers 

We don’t have a lot of ski resorts in Florida, but we have plenty of attractions in our home state and most of these are protected by legislation that ensures that our primary industry isn’t sued to death. The same remains true of places where ski resorts are common. The local government wants to protect the industry from lawsuits and the regulatory framework tends to support these businesses. In fact, ski resorts have much better protection than our own amusement parks which are generally strictly liable when someone is injured due to a ride malfunction. Ski resorts generally require that you sign liability waivers that prevent you from filing lawsuits under specific theories of negligence. For example, a ski resort would require an individual to sign a waiver based on negligent design, negligent maintenance, and more. Unlike amusement parks, which are supposed to provide only the illusion of real danger, skiing is always dangerous by virtue of its very nature.

Hence, ski resorts require individuals to sign waivers acknowledging the inherent dangers of skiing and in many cases, these liability waivers will prevent lawsuits from being filed. Nonetheless, the liability waivers apply to skiing and not the bathroom.

Are ski resort bathrooms an inherent risk of skiing? 

No. It is unlikely that the waiver would apply to the bathroom. However, the plaintiffs may have another problem. They need to establish a baseline for the minimum standard of care in your average ski resort bathroom. They would then compare the bathroom in which their client fell against other ski resort bathrooms that are presumably less dangerous. They would point out differences between the bathrooms to establish that the specific bathroom in the complaint was unreasonably more dangerous than your standard ski resort bathroom. One would imagine, however, that slippery bathroom floors are a known risk of ski resorts.

So, then the question becomes: Was there a sign warning people that the bathroom floors were potentially dangerous? Was the flooring itself adequate to potential slip hazards? Was the bathroom floor being mopped routinely? Was there adequate drainage to ensure that the floor diverted excess water away?

While the waiver won’t cover the bathroom, it remains unclear how the plaintiff will pursue their cause of action. If this were anywhere else other than a ski resort, the plaintiff would have a much stronger case.

Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Lawyer Today 

The Miami personal injury lawyers at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. represent the interests of injured plaintiffs in lawsuits against negligent defendants. Call today to schedule a free consultation and we can begin preparing your case immediately.

Source:

rutlandherald.com/news/local/woman-sues-killington-over-bathroom-slip-and-fall/article_d6013627-3f27-542c-90a3-76963a00f561.html