Property Owners Have a Legal Duty to Keep You Safe. When They Don't, We Act.

Premises liability is the area of law that holds property owners and occupiers accountable when their failure to maintain safe conditions causes someone to be injured. It applies to grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, apartment complexes, hospitals, parking lots, schools, swimming pools, and any other property a person is invited or permitted to enter.

The duty owed by a property owner depends on the legal status of the visitor. To business invitees, those who enter for the mutual benefit of the owner and the visitor, owners owe the highest duty: they must inspect for and warn of hazards, and they must take reasonable steps to make the property safe. To licensees, social guests and others present with permission, owners owe a duty to warn of known dangers. To trespassers, the duty is more limited, though there are exceptions for children and for traps. West Virginia courts have refined these duties through decades of case law, and a strong premises case requires close attention to the facts that establish the visitor's status and the owner's notice of the hazard.

Common premises cases include slip and fall and trip and fall incidents on wet, oily, or otherwise unmaintained surfaces. They include falls on broken or icy stairs, defective handrails, and uneven walkways. They include negligent security cases where a property owner failed to address foreseeable criminal activity in a parking lot or apartment complex. They include swimming pool drownings and near-drownings, including cases involving inadequate fencing or absent attendants. They include construction site injuries to workers and visitors caused by hazards a contractor or owner failed to control.

Insurance carriers defending premises cases lean heavily on what they call the open and obvious doctrine, the argument that the hazard was so apparent that any reasonable person would have seen it and avoided it. They use it to blame the injured person and reduce the value of the case. The doctrine has limits in West Virginia, and a well-prepared case anticipates and dismantles it through photographs of the scene, lighting analysis, witness testimony about how the property was actually used, and expert testimony where appropriate. The earlier the investigation begins, the better. Surveillance video gets overwritten in days, scenes get cleaned up, and witnesses move on.

Stroebel & Stroebel investigates premises cases hard and fast. We document the scene, preserve the video, identify the witnesses, and pull the maintenance and incident reports the property owner is required to keep. Then we prepare the case the way we prepare every case, as if it will be tried. Initial consultations are free. Call (304) 346-0197.

The cases we take on.

• Slip, trip, and fall incidents in retail stores, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and other public premises.
• Negligent security cases involving foreseeable assaults, robberies, or shootings in apartment complexes and parking facilities.
• Swimming pool incidents, including drownings, diving injuries, and entrapments at residential and commercial pools.
• Defective stairs, handrails, walkways, and elevators that cause falls or crush injuries.
• Construction site hazards causing injury to workers and lawful visitors.
• Dog bites and other animal attacks on the property of negligent owners.

“Open and obvious is a defense. It is not a free pass. We prepare every premises case to defeat it.”

Our approach, step by step.

1. 01

   Rapid Scene Investigation

   We send an investigator to document the scene, preserve surveillance video, and identify witnesses before the property is altered or video is overwritten.

2. 02

   Records and Notice

   We obtain maintenance records, incident reports, and prior complaints to establish that the owner knew or should have known of the hazard.

3. 03

   Liability Theory and Demand

   We frame the legal duty owed, the breach, and the damages, then present the carrier with a demand supported by the evidence and the law.

4. 04

   Trial if Required

   Premises carriers often dig in. We are prepared to dig in further. Cases settle for full value because the defense knows we will try them.