The Southeast Texas Record recently reported on a story out of Texas City involving a premises liability lawsuit. A franchise of the chain fast food restaurant Wendy’s was sued by a customer in relation to 2013 slip and fall accident. According to the complaint, the customer tripped over a cracked area of the restaurant floor and suffered serious injuries as a result. The suit alleges that the Wendy’s restaurant was negligent by not fixing the damaged floor or properly warning customers of the issue. If you have been injured by a business or property owner’s failure to provide reasonably safe conditions, contact an experienced San Antonio premises liability lawyer today.
What is Premises Liability and how does it Work in Texas?
Broadly speaking, premises liability means that businesses and property owners have a legal obligation to keep conditions on their property reasonably safe for invited guests. A premises liability lawsuit will typically emerge when unsafe or defective conditions on someone’s property led to an injury. Premises liability is similar to most personal injury cases in that it comes down to the legal concept of negligence.
Negligence and Premises Liability
Proving negligence requires four elements:
- Duty
- Breach
- Causation
- Loss
If you are going to successfully recover compensation for your injuries, your premises liability attorney must prove each of these four elements in relation to your case. For example, in the case of a trip and fall accident such as the one that occurred at the Texas City Wendy’s, the injured party will need to first prove that the restaurant had a duty of care. A customer is considered an invited guests under the law, and it is generally not difficult in Texas to prove that a business had a duty to keep customers reasonably safe. The next element, breach, is more contentious and more difficult to prove. In premises liability cases, the burden is on the injured party to prove each element. In the Wendy’s case proving a breach requires proving that the crack in the floor represented an unreasonably danger and that the restaurant knew, or should have known, that the safety risk was unreasonable. That is a very fact specific determination and a qualified personal injury attorney is an extremely important asset. Finally, to recover compensation, the injured party must also prove that the unreasonable safety risk created by the crack in the floor was a direct cause of the injuries and that those injuries caused the party to incur real losses.
Contact A San Antonio Premises Liability Lawyer
When you are an invited guest on someone’s property, you have the fair expectation that you will be kept reasonably safe from dangerous conditions. Property owners have a legal obligation to meet this expectation. At the Law Offices of Ronald A. Ramos our team has decades of experience handling Texas premises liability cases. If you have been injured by the negligence of a property owner, contact our office today to schedule a free case evaluation.
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