Woods Sued for Slip and Fall Accident

Tiger Woods is being sued for a slip and fall accident on his property. The story goes like this: John Davis, who is a retired cop and who was working as security on Tiger Woods' property, tripped over a badly positioned sprinkler system, causing him knee injuries. The two sides (Tiger Woods' attorneys and the plaintiff's attorneys) have failed to come to an amicable resolution during their mediation proceedings. But according to the security guard's attorney, negotiations have not ended and an amicable resolution is not yet out of the question. So far, Tiger Woods has not been deposed on video, mostly due to his celebrity status and the embarrassment that it could cause. However, it is possible that he will be asked to testify regarding the condition of the sprinkler system that caused the retired cop injuries.

For those who are not familiar with the civil litigation system, when someone files a lawsuit against someone for injuries, both parties are usually encouraged to meet with each other to try to reach an amicable resolution. According to a 2008 study, it is usually in the best interest of both parties to come to a resolution on their own and to make the case go away, because cost of trial can be huge. When you go to trial, you have to pay attorneys a fee, and you have to pay expert witnesses and investigators their own fees which can run in the thousands of dollars. The usual route to reach a resolution without trial is mediation, which can save both parties a lot of time and money.

The plaintiff claims that the sprinkler head system was oriented poorly, causing him to slip and fall. Further, he claims that Woods knew or should have known that the sprinkler was likely to cause someone to fall and get injured. The defense is countering that the sprinkler head was an open and obvious condition, and the plaintiff should have seen it. Slip and fall cases fall under a special category of personal injury law called premises liability. There are four elements to prove in a slip and fall case: That the plaintiff was owed a duty of care by the defendant, that the duty of care was breached, that there were injuries, and that the injuries were caused by the breach. In this case, the duty is clear. Because the security guard was on the property legally, he was owed a duty of care by the property owners. Such duty includes the duty to inspect and remove hazardous conditions, or at least warn guests about them so that they don’t injure themselves. However, according to the open and obvious doctrine, if a condition is "open and obvious" then the property owner would not be liable for the injuries. The idea is that because the condition was so obvious, the plaintiff should have seen it, so if the plaintiff tripped over the sprinkler, he was being negligent himself and therefore he is not entitled to recovery.

A trial which was scheduled for next week has been postponed for now, but the attorney expects that if the two parties are not on the same page soon, then their scheduled April trial will have to follow as planned. For now, it will be interesting to wait and see how this case will be resolved, and how much Woods' celebrity status will affect the outcome.