Pittsburgh Premises Liability Law Blog

More than 13,000 people are injured and more than 2,500 people die in residential fires every year. While most of those injuries occur in single-unit homes, what happens when someone is injured or killed in an apartment fire? When is the landowner liable?

Landowners may be liable if:

• They did not provide working fire alarms / smoke detectors: Landowners must provide working smoke detectors in every unit they rent. If failure to provide a working fire alarm contributes to a resident's injury from a fire, that resident may be able to hold the landowner liable.
• Their negligence contributed to the fire: If a landowner's actions or inactions contributed to the cause of the fire, he or she can be held liable. For example, did the landowner provide inadequate security, which enabled an arsonist to start a fire? Did the landowner fail to notice that the property was poorly wired?

Winter is not the only time that property owners need to make sure their sidewalks are clear from danger. Property owners can also be liable for injuries caused by bumps on their sidewalks or holes in their lawns. In fact, there are numerous hazards in the spring and summer that can cause injury and lead to a Pennsylvania premises liability lawsuit, including:

• Improperly maintained balconies and decks
• Loose railings and boards
• Slippery surfaces (such as wet decks and grass cuttings on sidewalks)
• Swimming pools
• Holes in the lawn
• Uneven ground
• Cracked pavement
• Home repair debris
• Dangerous stairways
• Unwound garden hoses
• Garden and work tools
• Decorative lawn items

Each year, nearly 2,600 children are brought to hospital emergency rooms for swimming pool accidents. Approximately ten people (children and adults) die each day from drowning. Two of these are children under 15 years of age. Drowning, in fact, is the second leading cause of accidental death for children under 15 years.

While 65 percent of adult drowning happens in "natural water settings" (such as lakes), the majority of Pennsylvania drowning accidents involving young children happen in residential swimming pools. Many of these deaths, if not most of them, are preventable, caused by failure to supervise children, failure to erect fences around pools, improper warnings and other negligence.

This month, Attorney John McTiernan was inducted into the 2012 class of The College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers. Established to honor those attorneys who have distinguished themselves in their practice in the field of workers' compensation, The College of Workers' Compensation welcomed 43 new fellows from across the United States.

The new members have been nominated for the outstanding traits they have developed in their practice of twenty years, or longer, representing plaintiffs, defendants, serving as judges, or acting for the benefit of all in education, overseeing agencies and developing legislation. They have a commitment to fostering and furthering the objectives of the College and have shown significant evidence of scholarship, teaching, lecturing, and/or distinguished published writings on Workers' Compensation or related fields of law.

Please click here for more information on The College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers.