Generally, the owner is the responsible party for the proper maintenance of a particular property. When you are caused to slip, trip or fall as a result of a dangerous or hazardous condition on someone else's property and is injured, the land owner or business proprietor may be liable for your injuries.
Dangerous or hazardous conditions include, but are not limited to, falls as a result of water, ice or snow, as well as abrupt changes in flooring, poor lighting, or a hidden hazard, such as a gap or hard to see hole in the ground.
Property owners are responsible for injuries that occur as a result of a dangerous or hazardous condition on their property, which the owner knew about, or should have known about. The hazard may be obvious or hidden. In some instances it may not be apparent, as in flooring which appears normal, but is slippery. It could be permanent, like broken concrete with a change in elevation, or temporary, like a liquid spill in a supermarket aisle. In general, an owner will be considered to have notice of a dangerous or hazardous condition if it is permanent in nature, since the owner knew, or should have known, about the condition before the incident occurs.
Notice may be established in two possible ways - (1) Actual Notice or (2) Constructive Notice.
Actual notice means that the defendant actually knew of the condition through their own observations, or caused and created the condition through their own affirmative acts.
Constructive notice means that the condition was in existence for a long enough time before the occurrence that in the exercise of reasonable care a reasonable person who has the obligation of maintenance or repair should have known of it with enough time to repair it before the accident. In other words, constructive notice may be established even if the defendant had no actual knowledge of the condition before the accident.
For example, in a situation where a mayonnaise jaw fell and spilled in the supermarket aisle, the length of time that the condition existed before the incident occurred has legal significance. If the spill occurred just before the incident, then the property owner may not be liable for injury, since the owner could not have known about the spill (and would not have been able to do anything about it) before the slip and fall occurred. However, if the spill was present for some period of time before the incident, or occurs in an area subject to liquid spills, or is a recurring event ("every time they wash the floor someone slips") then the owner may be liable, even if the owner did not know about the spill before it occurred.
In the event you have been injured as a result of a slip and fall, you may want to consult with an attorney to determine if you have a claim against the landowner.
It is important to note that floor or ground conditions may change, and you may need to preserve or record the condition that caused your injury (typically with a photograph or videotape). In addition, every state has a "statute of limitations" which limits the time you have to act. Some states require you to give notice to certain types of landowners, such as municipalities, within as little as 30 to 90 days of the incident. If you do not give the required notice, or sometimes file a claim or lawsuit within the time set by law of the state in which the injury occurred, you lose your ability to recover from the landowner. If your injuries turn out to be more severe than they first appear, you'd be in trouble.
If you have a valid claim against the landowner or responsible party for your injuries, delay may be fatal to your claim. You should act quickly to evaluate your options.