Property owners and occupiers must keep their premises reasonably safe. When they do not, and someone is hurt, the law provides a claim. Whether that claim produces a recovery is a different question, and it usually turns on insurance.
Premises cases look simple and rarely are. A fall in a shopping center parking lot can involve the property owner, the management company, the tenant whose customers use the lot, the contractor who resurfaced it, and the janitorial service that was supposed to inspect it. Each may carry separate insurance. Each carrier will point at the others.
That is the part of these cases I handle. I spent years on the insurance side before representing injured people, and I know how carriers sort out responsibility among themselves.
Who May Be Responsible
Liability follows control, not just title. More than one party usually has some measure of it:
- The property owner
- The property management company
- A commercial tenant, for the area it leases and controls
- Maintenance, landscaping, janitorial, and security contractors
- A general contractor or subcontractor performing work on the site
- A homeowners association, for common areas
Naming the right parties matters because each brings its own coverage. Missing one can mean leaving the money that would actually pay the claim outside the case.
Landlord and Tenant: Two Policies, One Accident
Where the injury happens on leased property, two separate insurance programs usually exist, and the lease determines how they interact.
A commercial lease ordinarily requires the tenant to carry liability insurance and to name the landlord as an additional insured. That endorsement does not give the landlord the tenant’s full policy. It typically covers the landlord only for liability arising out of the part of the premises leased to the tenant. So the location of the hazard becomes decisive. A fall inside the leased store may trigger the tenant’s carrier to defend the landlord. The same fall in a common walkway thirty feet away may not.
Leases also allocate maintenance duties and contain indemnity provisions, and those two allocations do not always match. A landlord may have transferred snow removal, lighting, or parking lot upkeep to the tenant while remaining liable to the injured person. The landlord then tenders the claim to the tenant’s carrier, and the tenant’s carrier looks for a reason to refuse. Whether that tender succeeds turns on the endorsement language, the indemnity clause, and where exactly the injury occurred.
These disputes are ordinary in this practice. They are also the reason a claim can stall for months while carriers argue about the duty to defend rather than evaluating the injury.
The Layers of Coverage
Serious premises injuries frequently exceed the first policy that responds. Coverage usually sits in layers:
- A primary commercial general liability policy, often with a self-insured retention the business must pay before the carrier contributes
- Umbrella or excess policies above it, which attach once the primary limits are exhausted
- The additional insured coverage described above, which functions as a second primary policy for whoever holds it
- A homeowners or renters policy, where the injury occurs at a residence
- Contractor policies, where work on the property caused the hazard
Establishing what exists, in what order, and at what limits is the first real task in a significant case. It also determines whether the case is worth what the injury is worth. Where damages exceed the available limits, an insurer that refuses a reasonable settlement can face responsibility for the entire judgment, which is the subject of my work on excess judgments and failure to settle.
Negligent Security
Where an assault occurs on poorly secured property, the claim is that the owner failed to take reasonable measures against a foreseeable risk. These cases raise an added coverage question, because liability policies commonly contain exclusions for assault and battery. Whether the policy responds can depend on how the claim is framed and what the owner knew. Confirming early is better than doing so after a year of litigation.
Common Premises Claims
These cases include slip, trip, and fall injuries; dangerous or defective stairs, walkways, and flooring; inadequate lighting; negligent security; defective or poorly maintained equipment; and unsafe conditions during construction or repair work.
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If you were injured on someone else’s property, or a carrier is disputing which policy covers your claim, contact me. I handle serious injuries alongside my catastrophic injury work. I meet with clients in English, Armenian, and Russian.