Legal Question in Personal Injury in Canada
Negligence
I was attending a ski bus trip with family and friends this weekend and I was injured due to Negligence of the hotel we were staying at I am wondering if I have a case for lawsuit? I was exiting the hot tub (located outside sunk into a wooden deck) when I slipped on a pile of ice at the top of the cement steps. I flew up in the air, bounced down cement stairs bouncing off the walls and ledges I landed on the cement ground in -20. I was rushed to hospital (after having to lay on the freezing cold cement in agony and embarrassment due to laying there in my bathing suit) in an ambulance strapped to a backboard wearing a neck brace. One of the other people on my tour told the front desk about 1 hr prior to my fall that there was a bad build up of ice on the hot tub deck and that they should clean it up immed. before someone was hurt. I have 6 witnesses to my fall and even more to the state of the deck. I have been x-rayed and have no broken bones but I have severe bruising, swelling, pulled muscles, and bruised ribs. I am a physio therapist assistant and am unable to work due to my injury. I can barely move and am unable to do anything! The hotel did not even as much as refund me for my room! I am on pain medicine but it doesn�t help
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Negligence
In any slip and fall case, you have to deal with three issues:
1) Liability
2) Damages
3) Causation
You clearly meet the damages requirement; you have been injured. Although you have no broken bones, you do have significant injuries which warrant a lawsuit (if Liability can be proven).
Liability will depend on an investigation into the circumstances surrounding your fall. If the maintenance done on the hot tub was insufficient and caused your injuries, and if you could prove that the hotel was negligent in not tending to this issue, then you have a case that could demonstrate liability.
In the circumstances as you have described them, I would definitely think that you should pursue a claim, even though the other side would probably argue that because of your knowledge of the icy stairs, combined with the weather etc., that you are partly responsible for the fall.
Another factor would be whether you had consumed any alcohol prior to the incident.
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