You fall on Black Friday. Who is to blame?
Posted December 2nd, 2013 by Anthony Carbone, PC.
Categories: Personal Injury.
It’s Black Friday time! While standing in line for the doors to open at your favorite store, you drop your purse. When bending down to get it, the doors opened and everyone started charging the door. Lost in the commotion, you are pushed to the ground by one of the shoppers that never stopped to help. You injure your back. Who can you blame?
Sadly, this scenario seems to happen often. In an effort to get the best deal, people stampede into the store and someone is bound to get trampled. In fact, in 2008, a New York Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death after a stampede of Black Friday shoppers after they rushed into the store. So can this be the same type of case as slipping and falling in the store’s parking lot?
According to premises liability, it is the responsibility of the store to keep the shoppers under control – in fact, OSHA has issued crowd control guidelines for stores to follow. If you fall at the store, even if you were pushed, you can still sue the store and its owners for damages. Since the store failed to prevent hazardous conditions (which, in this case, is conditions that had caused pandemonium) and in fact contributed to your injury, they are responsible for your injuries.
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