Employer Held Liable for Employee’s Car Accident

Business vehicles make up a large portion of cars and trucks operating on Hudson, New York roads.  Sometimes, it is conspicuous that the vehicle is company owned; the business name could be written on the vehicle.  Other times, it may not be clear that the driver is operating a company vehicle or driving a vehicle for work purposes.

In any event, when an employee causes a car accident, his or her employer can be held to pay for injuries caused during the accident.  Consider the following real life example.  It is from a case titled, Zeglen v. Minkiewicz.  An employee of GE, Adamson, caused a collision with Minkiewicz.  Minkiweicz’s passenger was a person named Zeglen.  This passenger was injured in the car accident.

Zeglen sued Minkiewicz and Adamson so that he could be compensated for his injuries.  But there is more.  Zeglen also sued GE because Adamson was operating the vehicle while conducting business for GE.  Zeglen won at trial and every defendant, including GE, was held liable for Zeglen’s damages.

Experienced car accident attorneys in Hudson, New York have seen many cases like the one described above.  And holding the employer liable for the negligent actions of his or her employee makes sense.  Why?  Because the employer is profiting off of the employee’s work.  So when there is a loss, the employer must suffer the consequences.  It the legal world, the concept is known as respondeat superior – literally translated as “let the master answer”. 

But there is a catch.  If the employer is to be held liable when his employee’s negligence causes a car accident, the employee must have had permission to use the vehicle, and company business must have been conducted. 

Permission to use the company vehicle can be expressly made or it can be implied.  Meaning, the employer cannot escape liability by saying he never told the employee to use the company vehicle.  For if the employee cannot complete his job without using the company vehicle, than he has implied consent to use the vehicle. 

Let’s talk about operating the vehicle within the scope of employment.  It is not always clear.  For example, some employees are allowed to take a company car home, like a work truck.  But they are told to never use the vehicle for personal affairs.  If the employee uses the vehicle to go shopping for groceries on the weekend and ends up negligently causing an accident, the company might not be held liable for the victim’s injuries.  Of course, motor vehicle coverage will cover some losses, but the company might not be held liable for losses not covered by insurance. 

All of these issues will be debated during any trial; whether or not there was permission to use the vehicle; whether or not the employee was working; or if the employee strayed from company business during work hours. 

The attorneys at Greenberg and Greenberg handle car accident cases throughout New York State, including Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, and Albany County.  Our legal team has earned a reputation for dedicated service to our clients injured in New York personal injury accidents.  Please contact us today to receive a free case evaluation by dialing locally to 518-828-3336 or call toll free at 877-469-9300.

Slip and Fall Accident: How to Pay Your Medical Bills

The injuries caused by a slip and fall accidents can be more serious than most people suspect.  In fact, the injuries can be quite similar to that which occurs in motor vehicle collisions.  Experienced personal injury attorneys from Hudson, New York have seen slip and fall victims suffer from:

·         Torn ligaments;

·         Lacerations;

·         Sprains;

·         Bruising;

·         Fractured limbs: arms and legs;

·         Broken hands and fingers;

·         Broken collar bones;

·         Fractured shoulders;

·         Broken hips;

·         Knee damage;

·         Broken back vertebra;

·         Spinal cord injuries;

·         Fractured skulls;

·         Concussions;

·         Traumatic brain injury;

·         Coma; and

·         Death.

I am sure you can imagine that any one of these injuries can cause the victim to incur extensive medical bills.  The difficulty for slip and fall victims is figuring out how to pay.  Fortunately, there are many ways to have medical bills paid, including obtaining compensation via civil litigation.

The easiest way to pay medical bills is by using one’s own health coverage; through a plan offered by an employer that which the victim in enrolled in, or by coverage through a policy obtained from the Marketplace.  Of course all of the cost is not covered; the victim will have to pay any deductable and co-payments.  Medicare or Medicaid can cover the cost too if the victim has these benefits.

Alternatively, if the slip and fall accident happened on residential property, the home owner’s property insurance can help pay for medical bills.  Commercial property will most likely be insured for slip and fall accidents too.  So if the victim suffers a slip and fall accident, it is important to get the property owner’s insurance information.

What if someone slips and falls at work?  Workers’ Compensation can help pay for the victim’s medical bills. 

If any or all of the above fails at compensating the victim for money paid to medical providers, the victim can sue the property owner for compensation.

Success will hinge upon many factors and not all slip and fall accidents can be traced to an owner’s negligent care of his or her property.

Generally speaking, if a property owner:

a.       Created the dangerous condition that caused the slip and fall accident, or

b.      Knew about the dangerous condition, but failed to make it safe, or

c.       Should have known about the dangerous condition

A visitor on the property would have a strong case against the property owner (or operator) founded in theories of premises liability.  Monetary loss not covered by insurance can come directly from the property owner’s own funds.

Some exceptions and circumstances may limit recovery, so talking to an experienced attorney is the best course of action. 

The attorneys at Greenberg and Greenberg handle slip and fall cases throughout New York State, including Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, and Albany County.  Our legal team has earned a reputation for dedicated service to our clients injured in New York personal injury accidents.  Please contact us today to receive a free case evaluation by dialing locally to 518-828-3336 or call toll free at 877-469-9300.

Common Slip and Fall Injuries

Slip and fall accidents happen more often than most people realize.  In fact, the number of annual falls is approaching 10 million!  Another unfortunate fact is that the likelihood of falling increases with age, meaning that many slip and fall victims are the elderly and the most fragile segment of the Hudson, New York population.

Experienced Hudson slip and fall attorneys know that regardless of age the causes and consequences of slip and fall accidents are common across all personal and socioeconomic demographics.  Quite plainly, the leading cause of injury regardless of age is slip and fall accidents. 

Every slip in fall victim can potentially suffer from sprains, cuts, bruising, swelling, ligament tearing, joint injury, fractures to any number of bones, spinal cord injuries, brain injury, and in the most extreme cases death can result.   Therefore, the injuries can be so severe that one could think that the victim was in a car accident rather than a slip and fall accident.  Consider the following types of injuries. 

Head Injuries:

Injuries to the head are some of the most traumatic injuries from which a slip and fall victim can suffer.  Obviously this is because the brain can be permanently damaged.  Even a minor fall can cause the brain to impact with the inner skull.  The result can be brain swelling and bleeding.  Even if temporary, the victim could suffer from vision loss, speech loss, memory loss, and or mobility impairment. 

If the victim’s skull fractures, bone fragments can pierce the brain and cause significant damage.  The more severely impacted people may never fully recover.

Fractured Bones:

Fractures to the hands, arms, and shoulders are common when someone unintentionally falls.  This is because the victim is trying to brace him or herself from the impact of the fall.  These breaks can be quite dramatic, such as compound fractures when the bone pierces through the victim’s muscle, ligament, and skin.  Others will be complete fractures, but internal only.  While casting will cure many fractures, the more severe fractures will require surgical repair.  Such could include the need to place pins, rods, and screws into the victim to stabilize and repair the fracture.

The elderly are especially vulnerable to hip and pelvis fractures.  These types of injury may very well require surgery and even hip replacement.  These victims may never again experience the mobility that which they once enjoyed. 

Spinal Cord Injuries and Other Injuries to the Back:

Many injuries can happen when the back experiences blunt force trauma from a slip and fall accident.  The vertebra can fracture and caused damage to the spinal cord itself.  As you know, injury to the spinal cord can cause temporary and or permanent paralysis.  But discs can become damaged as well.  In either case, surgical repair is highly probable.

The attorneys at Greenberg and Greenberg handle slip and fall cases throughout New York State, including Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, and Albany County.  Our legal team has earned a reputation for dedicated service to our clients injured in New York personal injury accidents.  Please contact us today to receive a free case evaluation by dialing locally to 518-828-3336 or call toll free at 877-469-9300.

Snow and Ice Slip and Falls: How do I Prove my Case?

With the winter affecting the Hudson Valley, we have been receiving significant accumulations of snow fall as of late with more snow in the forecast.  These accumulations of snow and ice make travel dangerous for everyone, whether they are in motor vehicles or walking outside.  With the repeated heavy snowfall, many property owners are beginning to become lax as to their snow removal policies.  Whether this is because they are tired of the winter storms, or simply trying to stretch their snow and ice control supplies, sidewalks, stairs, and parking lots can become very dangerous places to walk on. 

New York law places a duty on all property owners, possessors, and maintainers (collectively “owner”) to use reasonable care under the circumstances to remove dangerous hazards and make safe the premises.  The law requires that owners to take reasonable precautions to prevent foreseeable harm to foreseeable entrants and users of the land.  This duty extends to all entrants on the land, whether the entrant is a business customer, social invitee such as a party guest, or even a foreseeable trespasser.

Therefore, if you are on the property of another and are injured in a slip and fall accident on accumulated snow and ice, you may be entitled to compensation because the owner breached his or her duty owed to you which caused your injuries.  To establish entitlement to compensation, you will also need to prove that the owner had notice of the dangerous or hazardous condition.  There are different types of notice which an owner could have.

First, there is actual notice.  Actual notice is just what it sounds like.  It is where the owner had been told of the dangerous condition or had seen the dangerous condition prior to your slip and fall accident.  This could be established by a complaint by another person, or if the owner or employee walked over the dangerous condition prior to your fall and knew such condition existed there.

Second, there is construction notice.  Constructive notice is more complicated of an assessment, and is usually a decision for a trier of fact—such as a jury—to make.  Constructive notice is when the dangerous condition has existed on the premises for a reasonable period of time to be discovered and remedied.  With snow and ice, this is generally a few hours long after the accumulation or formation of snow and/or ice.  What is reasonable could vary depending on the circumstances.  But the general point is that an owner could be liable for snow and ice which has accumulated for formed on the property if it has been on the premises for a period of time long enough for the owner to discover it and remove it. 

Another type of constructive notice is based on a recurring condition.  This means every time a condition occurs, it could give constructive notice to an owner even if the owner did not know about its presence.  A common example is if water freezes on a sidewalk because a gutter leaks melting snow water onto the sidewalk every day.  If a person slips and falls on a sidewalk with this freezing water, then the owner may be liable for the injuries.

Third and final, there is notice if the owner created the dangerous condition.  While this is not technically notice, but it could be classified as actual notice, any time the owner or his or her employee, contractor, or other agent creates a dangerous condition, the owner will be liable if that condition causes a slip and fall injury.  An example would be if water from a car wash travels down to a sidewalk and freezes, the car wash owner would be liable for causing the slip and fall injuries.

The attorneys at Greenberg and Greenberg handle slip and fall cases throughout New York State, including Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, and Albany County.  Our legal team has earned a reputation for dedicated service to our clients injured in New York personal injury accidents.  Please contact us today to receive a free case evaluation by dialing locally to 518-828-3336 or call toll free at 877-469-9300.

Car Accidents Caused by Roadway Debris

Any type of roadway debris can be a very dangerous obstacle and could cause very serious car accidents.  Examples of roadway debris include rocks, branches, dirt, broken car parts, glass, and similar types of damaging materials.  Collisions with these objects could cause damage to an individual’s motor vehicle and personal injury to the occupants.  Motorists could also lose control of their vehicles if they strike a large object.  Further, roadway debris run over by a motor vehicle could be launched at other vehicles behind or in other lanes, also causing damage to vehicles or personal injury to occupants.  In addition, many motorists who see the roadway debris and attempt to avoid it could swerve into other vehicles or pedestrians and cause serious personal injury. 

The question becomes who is liable for motor vehicle accidents caused by roadway debris.  New York statutory law has prohibitions against individuals throwing any injurious substances onto the roadway.  This includes glass bottles, probably the most common substance thrown onto the roadway.  If a driver places anything dangerous onto the roadway which causes a motor vehicle accident, he or she could be liable for those injuries.  Similarly, if a motorist places objects on the roof of his or her vehicle and it falls off while in transit, that could also bring liability if another is injured by the falling debris off of the vehicle.

In addition, New York State and municipalities are responsible for roadway maintenance and upkeep.  Debris on the roadway is their responsibility to remove and cure.  Failure to remove roadway debris which results in a motor vehicle accident could result in liability.  To establish liability, the governmental entity must have had notice.  Notice can be established if the debris stayed on the roadway for a reasonable period of time in which it should have been discovered and cured. 

Furthermore, other drivers on the roadway which strike the debris could be liable for any injuries which follow.  All drivers on the roadway must exercise reasonable care under the circumstances in the use and operation of their vehicles.  Thus, if a motorist fails to properly navigate around a hazard—such as a tree in the road or scatter rocks, that motorist may be liable for injuries to another if the debris is launched at another person or any injuries sustained by that motorist’s passengers. 

The attorneys at Greenberg and Greenberg handle car accident cases throughout New York State, including Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, and Albany County.  Our legal team has earned a reputation for dedicated service to our clients injured in New York personal injury accidents.  Please contact us today to receive a free case evaluation by dialing locally to 518-828-3336 or call toll free at 877-469-9300.