Hotel Accidents and Injuries: When is the hotel responsible?
Florida is by far one of the most popular vacation and tourism destinations. However, when a person goes on vacation, the last thing he or she expects is to suffer a terrible injury while staying in a hotel or resort. Under Florida statutory law, a hotel may be liable for any injuries that a hotel guest received as a result of a slip and fall on the hotel premises, if the injured guest can prove that the dangerous condition existed for a period of time enough for the hotel to know about it. In addition to the statutory law, Florida common law comes from judicial decisions in the cases where hotels were sued as a result of slip and falls.
According to Florida common law, the individual or entity who owns or operates a hotel has a duty to protect its guests. It means that, by law, the owners or operators of the hotels must continuously keep their premises, buildings, appliances, and anything else, related to daily operations of the hotel, in a safe condition in order to avoid injuries to their guest who pay to stay on the premises and assume that areas that the guests usually use, such as rooms, pools, lobbies, spa, restaurants, etc., are safe to use. A few examples of dangerous conditions on the premises are obstructed steps and passageways; defective furniture; bath tubs, showers, and stairs without non-slip protection; pool areas; liquid substances spilled on the premises; and other defective conditions.
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