In Fort Lauderdale, FL landlords can be held responsible for falls in stairwells and even face a wrongful death suit under the right circumstances. The key is if the incident was caused by their negligence in maintaining safe conditions in common areas. An attorney can help you figure out if you have a case for a personal injury claim.
The Law in Florida
Under Florida Statute §83.51, landlords have a legal obligation to keep their properties up to local code, and if there is no local code, they have to keep things in good repair and capable of withstanding normal stresses. Keeping stairwells in good repair generally includes keeping them well-lit and free from hazards like loose railings or uneven steps, making timely repairs to known issues, and doing inspections to ensure that clutter and debris aren’t making the stairwell unsafe.
Proving the Landlord’s Liability
To establish liability in a slip-and-fall case, you generally need to prove that the landlord had a duty of care, that it was breached by ignoring a reported hazard or something similar, that this breach directly caused the fall, and that the fall was the cause of injury or death for the victim. Each of these elements has to be proven.
Proving the landlord had a duty of care is fairly straightforward, but it will be harder to prove a breach. You’ll need evidence for this, such as, for instance, a tenant’s report of a broken step a few weeks before the fall which the landlord failed to address.
Proving breach alone isn’t enough, though. It must be the cause of the accident, so, in the above example, the broken step must actually be what caused the fall. If the victim fell in a completely different part of the stairwell than the broken step, the broken step might not be much use to the case, though it might be helpful in establishing a pattern of neglect generally.
Reasonable Time
The law gives landlords “reasonable time” to fix non-emergency hazards. If a broken stair was reported six weeks before the fall, then the landlord is likely to be held liable. If the broken stair was reported six hours before the fall, this might not be enough time to even properly mark off the hazard, let alone fix it, depending on the landlord’s specific situation. This can be a subjective standard, but a skilled lawyer can help you argue well for liability.
Visible Hazards
While all property owners are required to keep public areas in good repair, the law also requires people to take some responsibility for themselves. This means if a hazard is visible and a reasonable person could be expected to see and avoid it, the property owner is usually not going to be held liable, or at least their liability will be reduced.
Talk to a Fort Lauderdale, FL Lawyer for Help With Personal Injury or Wrongful Death Claims
If you or someone you love has been injured in a stairwell fall, contact us right away at G. Reynolds Legal, PLLC for help anywhere in the larger Fort Lauderdale area.
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