Q: Personal Injury lawsuit question regarding slip and fall on HOA property
A elderly guest of my tenant slipped and fell outside my town home on property controlled solely by the HOA. He hit his head and spent several days in hospital. The fall was caused by glare ice in the alley, due to freezing rain. There was no snow accumulation, so the HOA had no procedure in place to sand when there is no snow. The guest seems to want to not only get the medical expenses paid, but appears to be planning to sue for a newly discovered heart condition he attributes to the fall. He may also find other medical issues he will attribute to the fall. I understand it's the HOA's responsibility, but would I get drawn in to the suit?
A: It depends. You should notify your insurance company about the incident and ask them to defend you if a lawsuit includes you. Even if you're not named as a defendant, you may be a fact witness. Let the lawyers, doctors, and insurers, and if necessary the courts, figure out what injuries may have been caused by the fall. The American civil justice system is good at doing so. I am familiar with a case in which a person had a heart attack caused by a cracked tooth, with a good and long chain of causation going back to an infection from the tooth. Needless to say, even the injured person's lawyers were skeptical at first. But if the causation is there and the science can prove it, the injured person deserves to be made whole. Good luck.
Tim Akpinar agrees with this answer
1 user found this answer helpful
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