Premises Liability

Business owners, landlords and homeowners generally have a duty to protect others from dangerous conditions on their property. When an owner creates a serious hazard that causes harm, our attorneys can evaluate and, if appropriate, pursue a claim.

Dangerous conditions can mean an unsafe construction zone or sidewalk, inadequate security, or any other safety violation or condition that poses a risk of injury to someone.

If you have been injured on another's property, it is important to have an Oregon attorney evaluate any claim you may have against the land owner, manager or landlord. The law provides strict deadlines for bringing injury, insurance and wrongful death claims. It is critical that you contact an attorney if you think that you may have a claim. An Oregon or Washington personal injury attorney based in Portland at Vangelisti Kocher LLP can provide you a free consultation to discuss your injuries and legal rights with respect to a premises liability claim.

Oregon Law

Under Oregon law, property owners and managers (including business owners, homeowners and property management) generally have a duty to protect others from dangerous conditions on their property in certain circumstances. Determining whether a claim is viable requires analysis of common law and, in some cases, regulatory, statutory, or industry-imposed standards of care.  Our attorneys are licensed in Oregon and Washington, and are qualified to evaluate whether your injuries were the result of a safety violation or a property owner’s failure to protect you from a dangerous condition. Dangerous conditions may occur in many circumstances:

Apartment and Home Rentals

A landlords’ failure to maintain apartments, apartment complexes, town homes, condos, home rentals, cabin rentals, vacation rentals, and other property rentals in habitable condition have been known to cause injuries. Our attorneys are experienced in handling premises liability claims, and are qualified to evaluate claims including: children falling from windows that do not have working latches or window guards, broken steps, broken handrails, stairs or railings that are missing or in disrepair, broken ladders or rungs, stair rails or balusters that are too wide, cracked sidewalks, broken doors, broken sliding glass doors, faulty electrical outlets, inadequate security or security gates, doors or alarms, children drowning in pools, broken elevators or elevator shafts, dumb waiters and fires from poor electrical wiring. 

Fire claims can require substantial forensic analysis.  These claims include apartment fires, duplex fires and house fires.  Often, injuries result where the owner failed to provide a required fire alarm or smoke detector, or from a lack of fire alarms and smoke detectors; or a lack of fire escape.  Injuries can also be caused from holes on the property, a hole in the driveway or a hole in the sidewalk or grass, and dangerous power lines. Carbon monoxide exposure can be another cause of serious injury or death. Our attorneys have evaluated claims in many of these contexts.

Hotels and Motels

Hotel/motel owners and managers have been known to cause injury by having dimly or poorly lighted walkways, parking lots, and stairs. Hot water temperatures that have been maintained at scalding temperatures may also cause injury to hotel guests. Hotel guests have fallen down hotel stairs and have fallen on slippery bathroom floors. Hotel guests have also been known to: drown while swimming in pools, lap pools, spas, jacuzzis or public or private beaches; fall off of diving boards; get stuck in elevators and on escalators; etc. Our Portland-based attorneys can evaluate claims based on these and other hotel or motel injuries.

Restaurants and Bars

At restaurants and bars, customers can fall if the establishment fails to keep floors, stairs and walkways free from spills. Premises liability actions have been brought against establishments that fail to eject customers who pose a danger (often from intoxication) to other patrons.

Additionally, restaurants, nightclubs and bars that serve liquor or alcohol to visibly intoxicated persons can be held liable if the intoxicated person then injures another person. These injuries usually occur when a drunk driver hits someone. The restaurant or bar may be held liable in certain circumstances. If you have been hit by a drunk driver who was served at a restaurant or bar, you must contact a personal injury lawyer immediately: very strict deadlines apply to these claims.  In Oregon, in many cases the deadline for a claim against the restaurant or bar that served the visibly intoxicated person is 180 days.  The deadline for claims against other parties may be longer.  

Grocery Stores, Shopping Malls and Department Stores

The negligence of employees at grocery stores or supermarkets can cause many dangerous conditions and injuries: falls from water, fruit, produce or other substances on the floor or sidewalk; hand trucks, boxes or other items obstructing isles; objects such as chairs, mirrors, other merchandise falling from racks; and falls from ice, curbs or a hole in the parking lot or parking garage, particularly if they have inadequate lighting or have poor lighting. Elevators and automatic glass doors have also been known to cause injuries to customers. Injuries have been known to occur even in major stores such as Albertsons, Inc., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Safeway Stores, Inc., and Fred Meyer. Major retailers and their insurers generally defend injury claims aggressively, and in many cases force the injured person to pursue their claim all the way through trial.

The appellate courts have generated a number of cases addressing landowners' responsibility for inadequate security of parking lots, parking garages, or sidewalk areas in and around schools, banks, apartments and other public spaces. A careful evaluation is often necessary to determine whether these claims are viable.

Workplace and Construction Sites

Places of employment or where subcontractors come to work can pose particular risks of injury if the employer, owner, manager, or contractor fails to exercise reasonable care. Employees or workers have been know to suffer injuries and falls from: unsafe plants or construction sites because materials are not secure, slippery surfaces, unsecured or unsafe structures or conditions (loose plywood, skylights, roofs, steam and hot water, stairs, scaffolding, bulldozer, bull dozer, landing, automotive lift, crane, railings, doors, power poles, metal poles, trenches collapse, tunnels, pipelines weakened by corrosion, pits, unsafe equipment or rigs), exposure to toxic chemicals (mesothelioma from asbestos), gas lines, tree trimming, explosions, falls and electrocution. In certain circumstances, the workers compensation bar does not apply. In other words, workers can hold liable companies and persons other than their employers who caused the injuries. In this case, it is important to contact an Oregon lawyer or attorney for advice on this special protection in the law for injured workers.

Window falls can occur in the workplace situation in which a window washer falls from scaffolding. Employers or other companies responsible for the workers safety can fail to properly train or supervise the work of the window washer. This failure in turn can cause the death of the window washer. Failures of equipment or harnesses can also cause death to window washers. If the equipment or harness has a design or manufacturing defect that can cause a failure which in turn causes injury or death the window washer.

Homes and Condominium or Homeowner Associations

Homeowners can sometimes be held liable for persons injured on their property, although it is usually the homeowners insurance company that pays for the injuries. Even if home owner is not at fault for the injury, the homeowner’s insurance policy may pay some limited “med pay” benefits for the medical bills. Injuries at homes have been known to be caused by the following conditions: a hole in the yard, fence, or deck; stairs (with or without rails or railing), walkways, driveways, sidewalks, water features, rivers, ponds, lakes, canals, ponds, ditches, drowning in swimming pools, gates, hot tubs, Jacuzzis, unlighted areas such as stairs or walkways, porches, propane heaters, and dogs that bite sometimes when they escape from their leash (including pit bull dogs).

Office Buildings and Museums

In this context, people visiting office buildings and museums can be injured by faulty stairs or railing; substances left on the floor; cracked or broken sidewalks or sidewalks with leaves, ice or other debris; and loose manhole covers.

Abandoned Buildings and Abandoned Factories

Abandoned buildings and abandoned factories can be very dangerous places that provide unsafe conditions.  Injury can result from a variety of things including: broken windows, broken equipment, down power lines that can electrocute a person, utility poles or guy wires in disrepair or harmful coal dust.  Another danger lies in the abandoned parking lot where someone could be abducted or raped. 

Miscellaneous. Premises owner may also be held liable for the following hazards: failure to protect golf course workers from flying golf balls.

Inadequate Security

Injury or death can be caused by inadequate security.  Inadequate security can allow a shooting, stabbing, rape, robbery, theft, assault, murder or other criminal activity to occur where none would otherwise occur with proper security. Inadequate security can occur in or around schools, parks, banks, rentals, apartment complex parking lots, apartment complex laundry rooms, shopping centers, grocery stores, shopping malls, hotels and motels, restaurants, bars, convenience stores, department stores, large retail stores, parking garages, or sidewalk areas. Inadequate security can take the form of failure to post security guards, failure to warn about dangerous tenants or tenants with a criminal background, landlord's failure to give notice of other crimes or assaults, failure to provide sufficient lighting, and landlord's failure to provide working locks on doors and latches on windows.

Miscellaneous

Premises owners may also be held liable for the following hazards: failure to protect golf course workers from flying golf balls; a faulty carnival ride or fair ride such as a roller coaster or ferris wheel. Safety violations can also occur in the following locations: in a convention center, ski resort, snow park, amusement park, fairs and or carnival rides, parking garage, church, temple, mobile home, boat house, houseboat, exposition hall, railroad crossings, landfills etc.  Our Oregon and Washington-licensed attorneys are qualified to evaluate claims in these areas. You may call or use our web form to make a confidential inquiry.

RECENT FILINGS:

Premises liability

Claim: Child burn injuries at restaurant

Defendant: Jin Wah, Inc.
$1,430,000

Premises liability

Claim: Hip fracture and related injuries resulting from fall over retail display

Defendant: Fred Meyer Stores, Inc. $866,250

Note: The filing amounts listed here and the results obtained depend upon the facts of each case.

OUR SERVICE AREA:

Our attorneys are licensed in Oregon and Washington, and serve people who have been hurt throughout the Pacific Northwest.  The cities we serve include:

In Oregon:

Portland, Corvallis, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Albany, Ashland, Astoria, Bend, Condon, Coos Bay, Corvallis, Cottage Grove, Eugene, Florence, Forest Grove, Grants Pass, Gresham, Heppner, Hermiston, Hillsboro, Hood River, John Day, Junction City, Keizer, Klamath Falls, La Grande, Lake Oswego, Lakeview, Lebanon, Lincoln City, McMinnville, Medford, Milwaukie, Monmouth, Newberg, Newport,  Ontario, Oregon City, Pendleton, Prineville, Redmond, Roseburg, Salem, Sandy, Sisters, Springfield, St. Helens, Swet Home, The Dalles, Tigard, Tillamook, Troutdale, Tualatin, West Linn, Wilsonville, Woodburn.

In Washington:

Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Battle Ground, Washougal, Longview, Kelso, Woodland, Long Beach, Battleground, Aberdeen, Bellingham, Everett, Shoreline, Port Angeles, Wenatchee, Spokane, Walla Walla, Kennewick, Yakima, Port Townsend, Redmond, Mill Creek, Kirkland, Bellevue, Renton, and Auburn.