A Guide to Slip and Fall Claims in Washington

What is the “open and obvious” defense?

A premises liability claim is a personal injury claim filed against a property owner for an injury on their property. The most common type of premises liability claim is a slip and fall. 

As the name suggests, a slip and fall claim results when someone suffers an injury due to slipping, tripping, or falling on someone else’s property.

This article explores the nuances of slip and fall accidents in Washington, offering insights into what victims need to know to navigate their path to recovery and compensation.

Common slip and fall accidents

The National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) identifies falls as the primary reason for emergency room visits across the United States. 

Several factors can precipitate these slip and fall incidents, including:

Consider the following illustrative scenario:

Regardless of how a slip and fall accident occurs, it can result in serious injuries. Some of the most common injuries associated with slips and falls include:

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one out of every five falls results in a serious injury, such as a broken bone or head injury.

Proving liability in a Washington slip and fall incident

Slip and fall claims are almost always negligence claims. This means that in order to establish liability for your slip and fall injury, you’ll have to prove four elements:

• Duty: You must prove that the defendant owed you a duty of care.
• Breach: You must prove that the defendant breached their duty of care.
• Causation: You must prove that the defendant’s breach caused your injury.
• Damages: You must prove that you actually suffered an injury.

When it comes to slip and fall cases, litigation typically focuses on the duty the defendant owed and whether the defendant breached that duty.

Washington property owners must take certain measures to ensure their property is safe for visitors. The measures an owner must take depend on the visitor’s classification. Visitors are divided into three categories:

Classification	Definition	Duty owed
Invitee	An invitee is an individual who enters a property for the benefit of both themselves and the property owner, such as a customer in a store.	An owner owes an invitee the highest degree of care, which includes the duty to locate and fix (or provide a warning about) any dangerous conditions.
Licensee	A licensee is an individual who enters a property for their own purposes but with the owner’s permission, such as a social guest.	An owner owes a licensee a duty of ordinary care to warn or fix dangerous conditions that the owner has knowledge of or should have knowledge of.
Trespasser	A trespasser is an individual who enters a property without any right and without the property owner’s permission.	An owner only owes a trespasser a duty to refrain from willfully injuring the trespasser.

Determining whether a property owner breached their duty will depend on the specific facts of each case. Nevertheless, there are some general rules to keep in mind:

• A property owner has no duty to warn an invitee of a dangerous condition that’s “open and obvious.” An “open and obvious” condition is one that would have been clear to any reasonable person. However, a property owner might have a duty to warn the invitee if the owner creates a distraction that prevents the invitee from seeing the dangerous condition. For example, if a customer trips over an uneven floor while engrossed in an interactive digital kiosk set up by the store, the owner may be liable.
• In the case of a foreign object that falls on a store’s floor (such as a spilled drink), the owner isn’t liable unless there’s some evidence that the object was on the ground long enough for store employees to become aware of its presence and have a reasonable opportunity to clean it up.
• A property owner may avoid liability if the invitee could have avoided the injury by taking an alternative path. For example, if there are two entrances to a store and only one has ice in front of the entrance, the property owner may not be responsible for a slip and fall if the invitee enters through the entryway covered with ice.

Defenses to slip and fall claims in Washington

The three most common defenses raised in slip and fall cases in Washington are:

1. Open and obvious: Defendants may argue they’re not at fault because the dangerous condition was “open and obvious.” In other words, the plaintiff should have seen the dangerous condition and avoided it. Just because a dangerous condition is open and obvious doesn’t mean the property owner automatically wins. Rather, the court will consider the openness and obviousness of the dangerous condition as a factor in determining liability.
2. Comparative fault: Washington follows the pure comparative fault rule, which means a plaintiff’s damages are reduced by their percentage of fault. The most common example of a plaintiff who is partially at fault for a slip and fall accident is a plaintiff who is running through a store when they slip on something.
3. Trespassing: In Washington, property owners have a limited duty of care to trespassers, which means that if the plaintiff was not lawfully on the property, the owner's liability may be significantly reduced. The exception to this is when harm comes to children due to an attractive nuisance.

Damages available in a Washington slip and fall case

If you’re injured as a result of a slip and fall on someone else’s property in Washington, you may be able to recover the following damages:

• Economic damages represent the monetary losses caused by your slip and fall (e.g., medical expenses, lost wages, property damage).
• Non-economic damages represent the non-monetary losses caused by your slip and fall (e.g., pain and suffering, loss of consortium).

Most states allow punitive damages to be awarded for the purpose of punishing defendants for malicious, intentional, or reckless conduct. However, with few exceptions, Washington does NOT allow plaintiffs in personal injury cases to recover punitive damages.

What is the statute of limitations for a Washington slip and fall claim?

Under the Washington statute of limitations, you have three years from the date your injury occurred to file a slip and fall lawsuit.

While the three-year statute of limitations is a general rule, several exceptions could alter this timeline, by extending it or imposing specific conditions. These exceptions include:

• Minor plaintiffs: If the injured party is a minor (under the age of 18), the statute of limitations does not begin until the minor reaches the age of majority. This means the deadline to file a lawsuit extends beyond the usual three years, giving the individual until their 21st birthday to take legal action.
• Discovery rule: In some cases, the injury or its extent may not be immediately apparent following the incident. Washington recognizes the discovery rule, which allows the statute of limitations to start from the moment the injury is discovered (or should reasonably have been discovered) rather than the date of the accident itself.
• Disability or incapacity: Similar to the provision for minors, if the injured person is legally incapacitated or disabled at the time of the injury, the statute of limitations may be tolled until the incapacity ends, providing additional time to file a lawsuit.
• Absence of the defendant: If the responsible party leaves the state of Washington, the period of their absence may not count towards the three-year statute of limitations, effectively extending the deadline for filing a claim.