Under California law, a busines owner may be found negligent if he or she fails to use reasonable care to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition. A person who owns property must use reasonable care to discover any unsafe conditions and to repair, replace, or give adequate warning of anything that could be reasonably expected to harm others. A landowner owes a duty to exercise reasonable care to maintain his or her property in such a manner as to avoid exposing others to an unreasonable risk of injury. The proper test to determine liability is whether in the management of their property the owner has acted as a reasonable man in view of the probability of injury to others.
In practical terms, a breach of duty occurs when the property owner fails to regularly inspect their property and remedy any dangerous condition present, causing a fall. In the context of a supermarket, the liability determination is often going to hinge on whether the stores has documented, regular inspections of the salesfloor. If not, an inference may be drawn that the store's employees were negligent and that better inspection practices would have revealed the danger, such that it could have been remedied before the fall.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a slip and fall accident, contact the Law Offices of Paul W. Ralph for a FREE CONSULTATION.
