Here is another common situation that is seen on many occasions. The situation is that someone is walking in a community or on a public sidewalk and the sidewalk is uneven, as trees in the area has caused one side to be raised higher that the other side and therefore the client trips and falls.
Generally, a landowner has a duty to warn invitees of conditions that he or she knew about or should have known about. Clearly, an uneven sidewalk (where one part is lifted by three or four inches, by example, causing a tripping hazard) is a hazardous condition that should be remedied or some sort of sign to warn people on the sidewalk. Thus, this sort of situation very well may be a case of negligence on the part of the sidewalk owner or the entity that is to maintain the sidewalk.
Another important issue in these sorts of cases is comparative fault. Thus, if the landowner is found at fault, a jury can consider whether the injured person is also at fault. If the fall took place in the middle of the day, for example, a jury may find the hazard to be open to view and thus find the injured person to also be at fault. In these situation, the jury must apportion fault (50 percent, 50 percent; 70 percent, 30 percent; and so forth) between the parties.
Of course, every case is unique and has to be judged based on the specific facts of the case. The advice in this blog is intended to be general in nature and should not to be construed as specific advice for a case, as the most slight difference in the facts could ultimately change the result. Also, this blog is, as the web site suggests, based on Florida law and the laws of any other states or another country could vary significantly from Florida.
