There must be negligence—a breach of the duty of care—or some other wrongful act. In recent years, the law of premises liability has evolved to include cases where a person is injured on the premises of another by a third person’s wrongful act, such as an assault. These cases are sometimes referred to as “third party premises liability” cases and they represent a highly complex and dynamic area of tort law. They pose especially complex legal issues of duty and causation because the injured party is seeking to hold a possessor or owner of property directly or vicariously liable when the immediate injury-producing act was, arguably, not caused by the possessor or owner.
It’s about a business owner reducing liability. It’s really that simple. It doesn’t have to make sense to you, and it might even be overcautious. But it’s how you protect your business from stupid bullshit like that.
“they represent a highly complex and dynamic area of tort law. They pose especially complex legal issues”
Like I said, not simple at all. If the business owner wants to reduce liability they should definitely not be serving anything on a scalding hot piece of metal. A customer spilling any amount of non-scalding food onto another customer will absolutely not result in a successful lawsuit, at worst they might have to comp a meal or two. Feel free to try finding even a single example to the contrary, I’m open to being proven wrong.
They also reduce their liability by only allowing trained employees to handle food.
I am not a lawyer, I have no idea if the lawsuit would be successful. But the outcome isn’t really important to this discussion when the act of being sued in and of itself costs time and money and business owners do everything they can to avoid it.
It’s about a business owner reducing liability. It’s really that simple. It doesn’t have to make sense to you, and it might even be overcautious. But it’s how you protect your business from stupid bullshit like that.
“they represent a highly complex and dynamic area of tort law. They pose especially complex legal issues”
Like I said, not simple at all. If the business owner wants to reduce liability they should definitely not be serving anything on a scalding hot piece of metal. A customer spilling any amount of non-scalding food onto another customer will absolutely not result in a successful lawsuit, at worst they might have to comp a meal or two. Feel free to try finding even a single example to the contrary, I’m open to being proven wrong.
They also reduce their liability by only allowing trained employees to handle food.
I am not a lawyer, I have no idea if the lawsuit would be successful. But the outcome isn’t really important to this discussion when the act of being sued in and of itself costs time and money and business owners do everything they can to avoid it.