Attorney Michael Rehm — (916) 233-7346
Attorney Michael Rehm represents people who have been seriously injured in slip and fall accidents on someone else's property in Sacramento and throughout Sacramento County. These cases are handled on a contingency fee basis — no fee without a recovery. Call (916) 233-7346 for a free consultation.
The Legal Duty a Property Owner Owes You
Under Civil Code § 1714(a), everyone has a legal duty to use ordinary care to prevent harm to others. For property owners, that duty means maintaining the premises in a reasonably safe condition — inspecting for hazards, repairing dangerous conditions, and warning visitors of dangers that are not obvious.
California abolished the old common law categories that used to limit a landowner's duty based on whether the injured person was an invitee, licensee, or trespasser. Under Rowland v. Christian (1968) 69 Cal.2d 108, the standard is reasonable care under all the circumstances regardless of the visitor's status. The practical effect: a store, restaurant, landlord, or property manager that fails to maintain safe conditions can be held liable to anyone lawfully on the property who is injured as a result.
The duty is not just to fix known hazards. It includes a duty to inspect — to discover dangerous conditions that a reasonable inspection would have found — and to either repair them or warn visitors before someone gets hurt.
What You Have to Prove
CACI 1000 — the California Civil Jury Instruction that governs premises liability claims — sets out what a plaintiff must establish to prevail. CACI is the set of standardized instructions judges read to juries in civil trials. They define the legal elements a plaintiff must prove and the categories of damages a jury is permitted to award. Under CACI 1000, a slip and fall plaintiff must prove:
- The defendant owned, leased, occupied, or controlled the property
- The defendant was negligent in the use or maintenance of the property
- The plaintiff was harmed
- The defendant's negligence was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff's harm
The second element — negligence in maintenance — is where most slip and fall cases are won or lost. Property owners and their insurers consistently raise one defense above all others: they had no notice of the dangerous condition. Understanding how notice works is essential.
How Notice Works — and When It Doesn't Matter
There are three distinct notice situations, and they are not treated equally.
Condition created by the defendant's own operations. When the dangerous condition was created by the property owner or its employees, the notice defense disappears entirely. The California courts addressed this directly in Oldham v. Atchison, T. & S.F. Ry. Co., 85 Cal.App.2d 214, 218–19, 192 P.2d 516, 519 (1948), quoting the California Supreme Court in Hatfield v. Levy Brothers (1941) 18 Cal.2d 798, 806:
"Where the dangerous or defective condition of the property which causes the injury has been created by reason of the negligence of the owner of the property or his employee acting within the scope of the employment, the owner of the property cannot be permitted to assert that he had no notice or knowledge of the defective or dangerous condition in an action by an invitee for injuries suffered by reason of the dangerous condition. Under such circumstances knowledge thereof is imputed to him."
A leaking refrigeration unit in a grocery store is a direct example. The condition results from the store's own equipment and operations. It does not matter whether any employee observed the leak or received a complaint about it. Knowledge is imputed to the owner as a matter of law. The same principle applies to a spill caused by a store employee, a floor left wet and unmarked after mopping, or any other hazard attributable to the defendant's own workforce or property. See also Getchell v. Rogers Jewelry (2012) 203 Cal.App.4th 381, 386 — where access to an area is restricted to the owner's employees and a dangerous condition arises, the store owner can be held liable on a respondeat superior basis for the inferred negligence of those employees.
Actual notice. The defendant or its employees knew about the condition before the fall — through direct observation, prior complaints, maintenance records, or reports from staff. When a manager was told about a wet floor before someone slipped on it, that is actual notice.
Constructive notice. The defendant did not know about the condition but should have. The condition existed long enough, and was obvious enough, that a reasonable inspection program would have discovered it. How long is long enough is a question of fact for the jury. A banana peel that has been ground into the floor and turned black looks different from one that just fell. Evidence of the condition's appearance, how long it had been there, and whether the defendant had any inspection routine all bear on constructive notice.
Where Sacramento Slip and Falls Happen
Sacramento's climate, building stock, and commercial corridors produce a predictable pattern of premises liability claims.
- Grocery stores and big box retail. Wet floors from spills, leaking produce misters, and refrigeration units are the most common source of serious slip and fall injuries in Sacramento. The notice analysis above applies directly — when the store's own equipment or employees created the hazard, the owner cannot claim ignorance.
- Rainy season — November through March. Sacramento averages 18 inches of rain annually, with the bulk falling between November and March. Wet entryways, unmarked tracked-in water, and slick parking lot surfaces produce a surge of slip and fall claims during these months. A property owner's failure to place mats, post wet floor warnings, or address known drainage problems during foreseeable rain conditions goes directly to constructive notice.
- Old Sacramento and Downtown. Old Sacramento's historic brick and cobblestone surfaces, combined with heavy tourist foot traffic, create consistent tripping and slipping hazards — particularly after rain. Uneven brick joints, sunken pavers, and deteriorating mortar are recurring conditions in the district.
- Restaurants and bars. Kitchen spills tracked onto dining room floors, unmarked wet surfaces near beverage stations, and slick entryways after rain are common. Sacramento's concentration of restaurants in Midtown, East Sacramento, and the R Street Corridor means this category produces a significant share of Sacramento County slip and fall claims.
- Parking lots and sidewalks. Cracked pavement, uneven surfaces, missing wheel stops, inadequate lighting, and drainage failures are common causes of falls in commercial parking lots. Property owners have a duty to maintain these areas in a reasonably safe condition.
- Apartment complexes and residential properties. Common areas, stairwells, laundry rooms, and walkways on residential properties generate premises liability claims when landlords fail to repair known hazards or maintain adequate lighting.
What Damages Are Available
A person injured in a slip and fall caused by another's negligence may recover both economic and noneconomic damages.
Economic damages include all medical expenses — past and future — including emergency care, surgery, hospitalization, physical therapy, and any ongoing treatment required as a result of the injury. They also include lost wages from missed work and any reduction in future earning capacity if the injury causes lasting impairment. Economic damages are calculated based on actual and reasonably projected costs and losses.
Noneconomic damages include pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and permanent disability or disfigurement. These are not subject to a fixed formula — they are determined by a jury based on the nature and severity of the injury and its impact on the person's life.
Slip and fall injuries are routinely minimized by insurance adjusters. The reality is that falls cause some of the most serious injuries seen in personal injury practice: hip fractures — particularly in older adults — traumatic brain injuries from striking the ground or a fixed object, spinal fractures, and wrist and shoulder injuries from breaking a fall. These are not minor claims. The damages in a serious fall case are real and often substantial.
California follows a pure comparative fault system under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804. If a jury finds the injured person was partly at fault, damages are reduced by that percentage — but not eliminated. Insurance companies routinely argue inflated comparative fault against slip and fall plaintiffs, claiming the person was not watching where they were going or ignored an obvious hazard. Those arguments are assessed against the specific facts of the case, not as a blanket defense.
Filing a Slip and Fall Claim in Sacramento County
Slip and fall injury claims in Sacramento County are filed in the Gordon D. Schaber Sacramento County Superior Court, located at 720 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. The standard statute of limitations for personal injury claims is two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. Attorney Rehm identifies all applicable deadlines at the outset of every case.
Free Consultation — No Fee Without a Recovery
Attorney Michael Rehm handles slip and fall cases throughout Sacramento County on a contingency fee basis. No fee without a recovery. Call (916) 233-7346 for a free consultation — home visits, and hospital visits available.