“Premises Liability” California – How to Bring a Lawsuit

In California, the law of premises liability requires property owners to

1. maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition and
2. warn guests and visitors of lurking dangers that may not already be open and obvious.

The following bubble graph shows common hazards that lead to premises liability lawsuits.

In this article, our legal team will explain:

• 1. Suing for Premises Liability
• 2. Whom can I sue?
• 3. Common Accidents
• 4. Property Owners’ Duties
• 5. What money can I get?
• 6. Injuries to Trespassers
• 7. Does Homeowner’s Insurance Cover Accidents?
• 8. Injuries on Public Property
• 9. Deadline to File Suit
• Additional Resources

1. Suing for Premises Liability

California’s premises liability laws are based on negligence. California Civil Code 1714(a) states that:

Everyone is responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person…¹

To win a premises liability lawsuit, we must prove:

1. The defendant owned, leased, occupied, or controlled the property;²
2. The defendant breached their “duty of care” in the use or maintenance of the property;
3. You were harmed; and
4. The defendant’s breach of their “duty of care” was a substantial factor in causing your harm.³

The “duty of care” for a property owner is based on what a reasonable property owner would do under similar circumstances.⁴

2. Whom can I sue?

If you are injured on someone else’s property, we can generally sue the individual or company who owns, leases, occupies, or controls (“possesses”) the property.⁵ This typically includes:

• Homeowners/landlords;
• Business owners and parent companies;
• Tenants/renters;
• Homeowners associations (HOAs);
• Property management companies; and/or
• Employees of one of the above.

Property owners or possessors generally cannot delegate away the duty to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition.⁶ If they hire an employee or an independent contractor to fix a hazard that they then fail to fix, the property owner is still responsible for the condition of the property.⁷

3. Common Accidents

In California, the accident cases we handle most often are:

• Batteries and assaults at public venues due to inadequate security.
• Construction site accidents, especially due to electric shocks, cranes, or falling off roofs, scaffolding, or ladders.⁸
• Dog bite injuries, which are among the easier cases to win because California law holds dog owners strictly liable, which is easier to prove than negligence.⁹
• Elevator injuries, which typically involve suing the manufacturer.
• Food poisoning that stemmed from poor food handling at restaurants, supermarkets, wholesalers, or factories.
• Home accidents, which include everything from burns and chemical injuries to falling tree limbs, shattering skylights, and deck and balcony collapses.¹⁰
• Slip and falls, often caused by spills, loose carpeting, uneven floors, leaks, bad lighting, or missing railings on stairs.
• Swimming pool injuries, which usually involve drownings.
• Water parks and amusement park accidents, such as drowning or falling from rides.

Property owners can also be liable for accidents that occur just off the property but are caused by hazardous conditions within the property.

4. Property Owners’ Duties

Property owners have an affirmative duty to prevent or fix dangerous conditions, especially if children are coming onto the property. Property owners cannot avoid liability just by claiming they did not know about the dangerous conditions.

When property owners cannot prevent or fix a dangerous condition, they should post a notice as a warning. It should be visible enough to make you aware of the hazard before you can get into a situation where you could be harmed.¹¹

5. What money can I get?

In a premises liability lawsuit, we seek compensatory damages for your economic and non-economic losses caused by the accident. Economic damages may include:

• Medical bills,
• Future medical treatment,
• Lost wages,
• Lost earning capacity, and
• Property damage.

Non-economic damages compensate you for losses that do not have a set dollar value, such as:

• Scarring,
• Disfigurement,
• Loss of a limb, and
• Pain and suffering.

Note that under California’s comparative negligence laws, your final damages award can be reduced if the court determines that you contributed to your injuries (such as by being intoxicated or being distracted by your phone).

6. Injuries to Trespassers

When a trespasser gets injured in California, the property owner could be liable if they failed to use reasonable care to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition. In these cases, juries consider all relevant factors, such as:

• The location of the property,
• The likelihood of an injury,
• How severe any injury would be,
• Whether the property owner knew of – or should have known of – the dangerous condition,
• How difficult it would be to prevent injuries from the condition, and
• Who was likely to come onto the property, and for what purpose.¹²

7. Does Homeowner’s Insurance Cover Accidents?

Homeowner’s insurance policies cover many types of bodily injuries (up to the policy limits) that occur on the homeowner’s property. However, insurance policies often have exclusions for certain types of accidents. Examples include:

• Dog bite injuries for certain dog breeds;
• Intentional injuries;
• Damages from neglect;
• Injuries caused by poor workmanship;
• Injuries caused by defective maintenance or repair; or
• Trampoline injuries.

Insurance policies may also require the policyholder to take steps to mitigate damages and notify the insurance company of the accident or injury within a certain period of time.¹³

8. Injuries on Public Property

To prove a public entity in California was liable for a dangerous property condition, we have to show it created a reasonably foreseeable risk of your kind of injury and either:

1. An employee of the public entity within the scope of their employment created the dangerous condition;¹⁴ or
2. The public entity had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition and sufficient time to have taken measures to protect against the dangerous condition.¹⁵

Factors a jury would consider include:

• Whether the condition would have been discovered by a reasonably adequate inspection system; and
• Whether the public entity had such an inspection system and did not discover the condition.¹⁶

9. Deadline to File Suit

Most personal injury cases in California have a statute of limitations of two years after your accident. Though if the injury occurred on government property, the time limit to sue can be as short as six months.¹⁷

Slip and fall accidents happen due to a property owner’s negligence.

Additional Resources

For more information, refer to the following:

1. Five keys to success for new landlords in California – Helpful article by the California Apartment Association.
2. How to find out who owns a property in California – Guide provided by a commercial real estate broker software company.
3. California Building Maintenance Companies – List compiled by Crunchbase.
4. Property maintenance services: The complete checklist and guide – Detailed information provided by a property management software company.
5. Civil complaint for premises liability – Form provided by the California Courts Self-Help Guide.

Legal References: