Buffalo premises liability lawsuits revolve around the concept that property owners are required to apply a certain standard of care to the maintenance of their property. Obviously, however, we would not want a system that required property owners to be perfect in correcting every possible problem that could arise.
New York State law requires that a landowner must act as a reasonably prudent person in maintaining his or her property in view of all the circumstances. The circumstances that may be considered when determining if the landowner acted in a reasonably prudent fashion are 1) the foreseeability of the plaintiff’s presence on the property, 2) the likelihood of the condition or defect causing injury to others, 3) the seriousness of the injury, and 4) the burden of avoiding the risk (i.e., the difficulty of correcting the condition in light of the likelihood of injury).
This standard of care applies in most premises liability cases. If a specific statute, ordinance or regulation mandates a particular safeguard under certain circumstances, however, the statutory mandate — not this general standard of care — applies.
If you have been injured because of a dangerous condition on someone’s property and have any questions, please feel free to call us at 716-542-5444.
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