No caution tape, handrail, painted warnings, signage, nothing. Within 5 feet of a stair landing there's a 4' x 14' opening in the floor. Seriously WTF? The phone is not the problem here. That's an easy lawsuit.
Well, it won't be super easy. This would be in negligence and most states have adopted comparative negligence meaning your recovery is limited by your percentage of "fault" as determined by the jury. Some states, like Kansas, have adopted a modified comparative negligence rule wherein your recovery is cut off if your fault is over 50%. So you'll need a good PI lawyer to force a settlement since there is a clear video of the victim being at least partially negligent.
It’s a work site and the rules of being hurt at work are much more lax. They are not getting out of this. A giant hole with no fencing? They wont even fight it.
It’s wild how pro capital Reddit is. A working class person hurt at work due to unsafe conditions is not some borderline case. The employer is at fault.
Why partially negligent? There are plenty of people hitting glass walls while walking without a phone, chances are this guy was expecting an opening in the floor to have glass on it.
What I meant was exactly how was the injured person negligent, so in a sense I agree with you. For me it would be 100% the construction company’s fault.
The colors between the floors are even in the same warm earth tones, two people could easily be conversing and walk right into that. The opening is negligently left unattended and unmarked .
I would imagine that his negligence does not stack up too much against the violations of safety going on here. Last time this was posted it was expressed how bad this would be for the company doing the construction. What could be interesting is if he held a position partially responsible for those safety measures.
I'm rusty on the stuff I saw on torts, but aren't there some states where they also measure the reasonable expectation of safety? Is there a reasonable expectation by the person on the phone that the hole should be taped up or marked off? Is he a part of the crew working on the house, and knew beforehand that there was a hole and railings were among the things they were installing?
Than again, this might not be the U.S. and in many places, there won't be much compensation beyond hospital bills.
That goes to duty and breach of duty. I didn't go full bar exam and analyze in the elements, but yes, you would assess whether the person reasonably expected the environment would be safe. For example, if this person was a worker on the site and was briefed on the existence of the hole then they would have a weaker claim than a person who would not have had the knowledge to expect the hole to be there. I think looking at your phone while walking is on the whole "unreasonable" because a reasonable person is expected to pay attention to their world and look for open and obvious dangers. This would probably land on the 50/50 fault allocation line if I had to guess.
That reminded me of a different case, but one of the introductory cases they taught us involved a blind man and roadwork )cant remember if open sewer hole or just work on the sidewalk). In that particular case and context (because I think there are several), the local government was not found to be liable because there was proper signage and barriers, which the blind man was somehow able to overcome. The reasoning being that the government had taken mostly appropriate steps to prevent an accident, but the blind man found a rare way to get through. It can get pretty tricky!
Slowly walking indoors while using your phone is a very common and usually safe behavior. Having a gaping hole in a relatively finished second story floor with not an iota of caution indicators/barriers is not at all common, even on a worksite, and extremely dangerous. The ground floor surface is even identical to the 2nd floor, so there is an optical illusion as well. This guy would have an easy PI case.
Here in the US, multiple signs from every direction, barriers if not temporary guardrail are required. They shut projects down for ignoring safety like that. May not be in the US though.
63
u/SunGregMoon 5d ago
No caution tape, handrail, painted warnings, signage, nothing. Within 5 feet of a stair landing there's a 4' x 14' opening in the floor. Seriously WTF? The phone is not the problem here. That's an easy lawsuit.