What are my options if my daughter slipped and fell on hotel property?

Question

My daughter fell breaking her two front teeth. She has undergone extensive dental work. The hotel stairs were slick and old non-skid strips that were completely painted over. Hotel did an incident report and I took pictures of the stairs. What are my options?

Thomas Bulman · Answer

What are the total expenses so far?  Future?  What city did the fall occur?

Donald Broad · Answer

If your daughter is a minor, you can pursue a claim for your daughter (in Indiana, anytime until your daughter turns 20 years old) for her personal injuries.  You should consult a local personal injury attorney to help you make the claim and negotiate with the insurance company for the hotel.

Kenneth Wincorn · Answer

This sounds like a decent slip and fall case. Most cases like this are not worth handling, but your facts are better than most and should be of interest to a competent lawyer.

James Kelaher · Answer

Contact a personal injury attorney to represent your daughter. If they had painted over the non-skid strips on the stairs, making them slippery, then they can be held responsible.

Theodore W. Robinson · Answer

Contact a personal injury attorney and sue the hotel fornegligence. It sounds  like you have enough injury to warrant a suit and apparently sufficient  negligence to justify collecting on it. Good luck.

Kevin Habberfield · Answer

Go get a personal injury attorney. Painting over non-slip strips is really dumb. Those things are very cheap, work very well and prevent the very situation your daughter had happen to her. Get your own pictures as they will likely fix the steps prior to the case moving along.  Good luck, I hope her teeth are ok.

Paul Whitfield · Answer

You should get an engineer or builder to see what the building code requires and to testify as to the standard of care for such things. Looks like failure of maintenance but you need witnesses to  prove it.

Orman Kimbrough · Answer

Generally, a hotel has a responsibility to keep its property reasonably safe, correct dangerous conditions it should know about and warn of conditions it should know about.  Because the condition may have been a longstanding one, the hotel may be responsible for your daughters injuries.  I recommend you speak to a personal injury attorney who can review the specifics of her case and give particular advice.

Michael Heilmann · Answer

A business invitee is owed a duty of care which this hotel violated.

Andrew Velonis · Answer

A property owner can be held liable for known hazards that could foreseeably result in injury.  Most ot the time, the property owner will claim that it did not have any knowledge of the condition.  In your situation, however, it can be argued that the hotel owners created the hazardous condition by painting over the old non-skid strips (and not using textured paint).  You did an excellent job by reporting the accident and getting pictures.  Now, get a lawyer.

Stephen Lombardi · Answer

I've recently answered a similar question for an elderly man and my   answer centers on identifying the defect, if any, that caused the person  to  fall. You have no options short of your own health insurance, if you  can't prove  there was a defect that was not open and obvious, and caused her to  trip or slip  and then fall. It's the defect that makes or breaks these  cases. What is the  defect?   Most businesses have some sort of medical pay coverage under the casualty   insurance policy and will pay for medical (limited coverage dollar amount)   without regard to fault. So I'd suggest you do two things. One contact the  hotel  and ask if they have medical pay insurance coverage, and if they do  turn in a  claim for the expense you're incurring. Second, contact a lawyer to  see if you  have an enforceable claim.   By the way, you did the right thing in noting the 'defect' and in   photographing it. Well done.

Ronald Lowry · Answer

Your daughter, whom I presume is an adult, should get an attorney experienced in premises liability actions and make a claim. If your daughter is a minor you should do it on her behalf.

Mark Leonardo · Answer

Slip and fall cases are very difficult and are disfavored in the law.  In order to hold the hotel liable, you would need to prove that the stairs constituted a hazardous condition.  You would likely need an engineering expert that would test the coefficient of friction to ascertain how slippery it is.  Hotels have a higher standard of care to make the premises safe.  But they probably have 100s of people walking there daily and how many are slipping or falling?  You can try to find a personal injury attorney that would take your case.  You can also contact that hotel and make a claim and ask to be in touch with their insurance company.  If they are insured (as opposed to being self-insured or having a very high deductible  e.g., $50,000), then they will likely have a med-pay provision that pays for your daughters dental expenses up to the limit of that provision (usually around $5,000) and they make such payment regardless of fault if the injury occurred on their premises.

Irving Blank · Answer

If you can prove that a dangerous condition existed and the hotel knew or should have known of its existance then your daughter has a good case.

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What are my options if my daughter slipped and fell on hotel property?

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