With regularity, hotel guests slip and fall in the shower or tub and they sue. Often the injuries are substantial. Here are a couple of the latest such cases.1
Plaintiff was a guest at defendant hotel. His room included a handicap-accessible bathtub/shower combination, generally referred to as a “shower tub.” While shampooing his hair, his feet slipped and he fell, landing on the floor and hitting his head. He sustained substantial injuries. He sued, claiming the hotel was negligent for failing to equip the shower tub floor with slip-resistant materials. Fortunately for the hotel, lawsuits are truth-finding events.
Plaintiff retained an expert to inspect the shower tub in his room. The resulting report stated the shower tub had a “raised truncated type slip-resistant surface” that covered the entire shower tub bottom. The report included photos that clearly depicted a textured, cross-hatched surface. The expert’s report also stated the resistance felt similar in both dry and wet conditions. Further, he reported there was no damage, chipping or scratches on any part of the shower tub floor in plaintiff’s room.
The hotel manager testified the hotel had 54 rooms, all of which have shower tubs, all of which were manufactured with slip-resistant textured floors, including the one in plaintiff’s room. He noted that, when plaintiff fell, the hotel had been open for 31 months and had not received any complaints about the shower tubs. He also testified to routine maintenance of the tubs that the hotel followed. The hotel proved it took reasonable precautions to help prevent falls in the shower, and thereby avoided liability.
In another recent case still in an early litigation stage, an injured plaintiff alleges that the hotel shower lacked handrails and a mat, rendering the floor slippery and the shower unsafe. If plaintiff proves the allegations, liability may well result.
The lessons are clear. Slip-resistant devices are important in hotel showers and bathtubs. They should be properly installed, checked regularly to detect any deterioration, and repaired or replaced as needed. This not an area for a watered down effort.
1Strahan v. Mccook Hotel Group, LLC, 317 Neb. 350, __NW3d__(8/16/2024); Vahle v. Choice Hotels d/b/a Comfort Inn & Suites, 2024 WL 3831089 (S.D. Miss., 8/14/2024).
This article was originally published in the October edition of Hotel Management magazine. Subscribe here.