Our firm was able to reach a favorable settlement on a premise liability case involving a plumber who while working on one of his client’s homes was severely injured when the stairs collapsed from under him. After finishing a boiler installation, at the homeowner’s residence, our client went to leave through the side door of the home and as he stepped onto the outside stairs, the top step broke causing him to fall through the remaining steps and land on the ground.
Since our client was a business invitee of the Defendant, Defendant is liable “for failing to correct or warn of defects that, by the exercise of reasonable care, should have been discovered.” Monaco v. Hartz Mt. Corp., 178 N.J. 401, 414-15 (2004); Gudnestad v. Seaboard Coal Dock Co., 15 N.J. 210 (1954)(stating that contractors and their employees doing work on a landowner’s property are invitees of the landowner). Defendant owed a duty to our client to make the premises safe, which included a “duty to make a reasonable inspection to discover defective conditions.” Handleman v. Cox, 39 N.J. 95, 111 (1963).
Due to Defendants failure to make the premise safe for our client, we were able to settle this case before having to go to trial and obtain significant compensation for our injured client.
