It can be challenging to establish that an owner knew or should have known about a dangerous property condition in an Atlanta premises liability lawsuit. Often a property owner brings a motion for summary judgment, claiming there are no triable issues of fact. If you were injured in a trip and fall, it is very important to retain an experienced attorney who can help you obtain the damages to which you’re entitled. Recently, in a Georgia appellate case, the court considered whether summary judgment was appropriate to resolve a trip and fall case in which the plaintiff was injured when she tripped over a root in a dirt patch by the defendant’s parking lot.
The plaintiff worked five minutes from the defendant’s restaurant. Every few weeks, she walked to the restaurant for lunch. In order to get there, she and other pedestrians traveled across a dirt patch that allowed her to avoid the driveway of the parking lot.
On one of her walks to the restaurant, she tripped on a root that was sticking out of the dirt patch; she fell and injured two leg bones. The root was sticking about two inches from the ground and attached on one end. When she fell, the root was protruding around 2 inches from the ground. The end of the root had broken and was above the ground. A landscaping crew had not seen the root in that condition four days prior when it had been inspecting the dirt patch for hazards.