Visiting a business should be a pretty uneventful activity. After all, many of us do this on a daily occasion. One reason why it seems like a minor activity is because the law seeks to protect business patrons from dangerous property conditions. Under Louisiana law, customers are considered invitees to a business, meaning that business owners have a duty to ensure that their premises are free from hazardous conditions. If dangerous property conditions exist, then they should be quickly identified and remedied. In the meantime, customers should be warned of the existing hazard.
Those property owners who fail to do this could wind up causing serious harm to a customer, as can be seen in one recent accident. According to reports, a nail salon customer was injured when she slipped and fell on a recently mopped floor. She has since filed a lawsuit against the salon, claiming that the wet floor not marked, so she was not warned of the dangerous property condition. The victim now seeks compensation for her injuries.
Many Louisiana residents are hurt each year due to unsafe property conditions. It is critical that these individuals recognize that they may be able to recover compensation for their damages, which may include extensive medical expenses, lost wages caused by missed work, and physical and emotional pain and suffering.
However, to succeed on a claim like the one involving the nail salon discussed above, a victim must prove certain legal elements by a preponderance of the evidence. These elements include that a duty of care was owed to the victim, that duty was breached and the breach resulted in the victim’s harm. These issues can be very fact sensitive, which means that each premises liability claim should receive the individual attention it deserves.
Source: The Louisiana Record, “Customer blames nail salon for fall,” Carrie Bradon, Feb. 20, 2017
