What Happens If You Slip and Fall on Someone Else’s Property?
Practice Candle Safety
Where to Sue? Websites Can Affect Jurisdiction
Social Security Number Verification for Employers
New 401(k) Invest Option
Illinois Legal Update
Insights and Developments in the Law
Spring 2006
What Happens If You Slip and Fall on Someone Else’s Property?
If you fall and injure yourself on someone else’s property, you may have a "premises liability claim." Legally, a premises liability claim involves the liability of property owners (or, under certain circumstances, lessees of property) for injuries that occur while someone is on their property. A premises liability claim arises when injuries are caused by what are sometimes called premises defects, which are nothing more than unsafe conditions on the property. There are any number of different kinds of conditions that may qualify as a premises defect, including holes, spills, and other unexpected hazards.
The duty that a property owner owes to a person entering the property depends on the person’s legal status. In Illinois, people entering property belonging to another fall into one of two legal categories; trespassers or licensees/invitees. The specific category dictates the amount of care the property owner owes to the person on the property.
Trespassers
As you might guess from the name, a trespasser is a person who enters the property of another without lawful authority, permission, or invitation. Because trespassers should not be on the property at all, the owner of the property does not have much responsibility to look out for the trespasser’s well-being. As long as the property owner does not injure the trespasser intentionally or through extreme carelessness, the property owner is not responsible for injuries the trespasser might suffer. The trespasser is said to "take" the property as he finds it, and if he is injured, it is his own fault. The owner is not relieved of liability simply by putting up "no trespassing" signs, although this may be evidence that an individual was on the property without the owner’s permission.
Licensees/Invitees
The second category consists of people who are licensees or invitees, commonly called guests. A licensee is a person who enters and remains on the property with the owner’s consent, but whose presence does not benefit the owner. Invitees enter the property with the owner’s knowledge and for the benefit of both parties. The most common kind of licensee is a "social guest," while invitees, on the other hand, are "business guests." If you are asked over to a friend’s house for dinner or to watch the football game, you are a social guest. Social guests are allowed on the property because the owner has consented to their presence, but their presence does not financially benefit the owner. Business guests are allowed on the property to conduct business that benefits both parties.
Because licensees and invitees are present with permission, the property owner owes them a higher degree of duty than he owes trespassers. As with trespassers, the owner cannot willfully or wantonly injure a guest, but the landowner also owes a guest additional duties. Illinois requires landowners to exercise "reasonable care" to either fix problems on the property or to warn those coming on the property of the danger, provided that the danger is not open and obvious.
For example, if the owner knows that his front steps are dangerous because they are uneven, he might have to warn guests to be careful on the steps, or else fix them. A guest injured by a premises defect of which the owner was aware and the guest was not may be able to bring a premises liability claim against the property owner. However, if the danger is obvious, the guest has a duty to avoid the danger. For example, an open, 12-foot trench in the yard is an obvious danger, and the guest has the duty to avoid falling into the trench. Although a property owner is not legally required to warn of or repair obvious dangers, it clearly would be in his best interests to do so in order to help avoid both injuries and the potential for liability.
This article lays out the basics of premises liability claims, but there are hundreds of exceptions and special rules. For example, there are different rules for children and for injuries caused by trespassers. In addition, the question of what is and what is not a premises defect is often dependent upon the specific situation. You should always consult a qualified attorney if you have been injured while on another’s property.
Believe it or not, the sale of candles in the United States is $2 billion a year industry, and 70% of families say that they burn candles at least once a week. However, with all of those candles comes something else; fires. According to recent data, the number of fires caused by candles has more than doubled in the past 10 years.
In order to minimize the danger presented by burning candles, keep the following tips in mind:
- Make sure that candles are kept at least one foot away from any combustible materials, such as curtains and bedding.
- Make sure that candles are positioned away from breezes in order to prevent them from being blown over, and also to prevent flammable materials from being blown into the flame.
- Keep candles out of the reach of children and pets.
- Use candles only if they are placed in holders that are not flammable, such as glass or metal.
- Blow out candles before leaving the house or going to bed, or even if you will be out of the room for a while.
- Blow out candles before they get too low, and stop burning candles before they reach the bottom of their containers or holders.
- Do not walk around with a lighted candle, or a candle you have just blown out, in order to avoid spilling hot wax, burning yourself, or possibly causing you to drop the candle.
- Do not light candles if you are using a kerosene heater or lantern, or if there is any danger of a gas leak.
In addition to presenting a fire hazard, burning candles also generate soot, which can stain your home and belongings. To keep the amount of soot to a minimum, trim all candle wicks before use so they are only ¼ inch from the candle top.
Every year candles are recalled by their manufacturers, usually for some fire-safety issue. This is especially true with scented candles and candles that have decorative objects embedded in them, because the scents or embedded objects often present special fire hazards.
To find out which candles have been recalled, check the website of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, www.cpsc.gov.
Taking these few simple steps will allow you to enjoy the beauty of candles without the danger. Don’t let candle safety become a burning issue in your home.
Where to Sue? Websites Can Affect Jurisdiction
In a nation of 50 different systems of state courts and a highly interconnected national economy, the issue of when one state’s court can assert jurisdiction over a non-resident person or business has always been fertile ground for litigation. State legislatures have addressed the matter with laws that are the civil counterparts to the notion that criminals cannot escape the "long-arm of the law." But "long-arm statutes," as they are known, do have their limits. Essentially, nonresidents can be sued in the courts of any state where they have had such contacts inside the state that it is reasonable to conclude that they have submitted themselves to the authority of the courts in that state. The principle is vague, but it has to be to cover the almost endless ways in which we conduct business.
In the business world, conventional arguments over the application of long-arm statutes have involved questions such as whether a party sought to be sued had an office or personal representative in the forum state, or whether a contract was signed by the parties in that state. Those issues still arise, but in the information age, courts increasingly have had to adapt the rules of business conducted over the Internet. Just because a company’s website is accessible by customers in a given jurisdiction does not necessarily mean that the company can be sued there. The emerging rule of law is that the more that a customer can have online interactions with a business based elsewhere, the more likely it is that if things go wrong the business can be forced to play an "away game" in court.
Close, but No Cigar
Examples make the point better than statements of rules of law. A Vermont furniture store used a trucking company to deliver furniture to a customer in North Carolina. When to buyer was injured during unloading, he tried to sue the furniture in a North Carolina court. In this case, the "long-arm" was not long enough to reach the Vermont company. The furniture had been bought and paid for in Vermont. The only respect in which the store had any connection to North Carolina was that its website could be accessed there, like anywhere else. But it was a passive site, giving information about products, but not allowing purchases through the site.
When an Oklahoma resident bought a laptop computer from a Georgia company, then returned it for repairs, never to see the laptop again, he was unable to sue the company in Oklahoma. The customer had learned about the computer from the Georgia company’s website, but he had ordered it by telephone and had not used the website to make the transaction.
Caught by the "Long-Arm of the Law"
At the other end of the spectrum are cases in which businesses could be sued in the states where their customers lived because the businesses had a more substantial online "presence" in those states. A dog breeder in Illinois could make a similar Oklahoma business defend a lawsuit in Illinois because the Oklahoma business operated an interactive website and also used chat rooms to reach potential customers all over the country.
A California customer of a hotel run by a Nevada casino was able to haul the casino into a California court to defend allegations that it had imposed an energy surcharge on customers without notice. The plaintiff alleged that nothing in the casino’s promotional activities, including its website, informed customers of the charge. It was important to the ruling that the casino used an interactive website where out-of-state customers could get quotes and book rooms. In addition, there was a close connection between the alleged wrong – the misleading promotions – and the casino’s website that targeted millions of California residents.
Social Security Number Verification for Employers
The Social Security Number Verification Service (SSNVS), set up by the Social Security Administration (SSA), allows employers to use the Internet to match their records of employee names and Social Security numbers with those of the Government’s before preparing and submitting W-2 forms. You can access the SSNVS at www.socialsecurity.gov/bso/bsowelcome.htm. This is a faster and easier method to use than submitting requests to the SSA by other means, including the telephone verification option.
Verification of data is important for both the employer and its employees. Correct names and numbers are critical to successful processing of wage reports, and unmatched records can cause additional processing costs for the employer. From the employees’ standpoint, verified names and numbers allow the Government to properly credit employees’ earnings records. Any uncredited earnings can adversely affect future eligibility for Social Security’s retirement, disability, and survivors programs.
As of January 1, 2006, employers are able to offer a new retirement savings option, the Roth 401(k). The new account allows the features of a Roth IRA to be incorporated into the setting of a 401(k) account, but without the income restrictions that limit a Roth IRA. Contributions will be made with after-tax dollars, but the account will grow tax-free, and withdrawals taken in retirement will also be tax-free, assuming an individual is at least 59 ½ years old and has held the account for at least 5 years.
Roth 401(k) accounts will be subject to the same contribution limits as regular 401(k)s. In 2006, this means a contribution limit of $15,000, or $20,000 for individuals 50 and over. The contribution limits apply to regular and Roth 401(k) plans combined, so, for example, an individual could not put $15,000 in a regular 401(k) and $15,000 in a Roth 401(k). Still, the opportunity to put more money into a retirement account that will have tax-free withdrawals will be enhanced, given that in 2006 the contribution limits for a regular Roth IRA will be $4,000 or $5,000 for those 50 or older. If an employer matches the employee’s contributions to a Roth 401(k), the matches will be made with pre-tax dollars in a regular 401(k) account that will be taxed as ordinary income at withdrawal.
Although it is only now becoming available, the Roth 401(k) originated in a big piece of tax legislation that was enacted in 2001, with a sunset provision to take effect in 2010. Thus, it remains to be seen whether over the long run the Roth 401(k) will be seen as an option that was available in a small window of time, or a permanent fixture in retirement planning.