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>>> steven karp: pete how are you doing today?>>> peter hart: i'm doing great steven and you?>>> steven karp: i'm doing good too! we're gonna talk today about slip and fall cases.everybody has tripped and fell and stumbled and been hurt and all that, but there's onlya special kind of a case where under the law people can recover damages for.>>> peter hart: steve, just because somebody falls on someone else's property it doesn'tnecessarily make the property owner responsible - hey i fell one somebody's property, i wantto file a claim. you must show that the property was defective, that there was a defect inthe property and that the defect was substantial - not just a little small thing, a step thatthey tripped on, a rise or a curb, it has

to be something really substantial.>>> steven karp: so if i'm walking down the street wearing sandals and i trip over a thingthat's about an inch high, and it may not be great but it did cause me to trip, cani collect against that property? >>> peter hart: no i would submit that youreally couldn't. it's such an inconsequential defect. every piece of property around thecountry, especially is west chester, chester county, they have defective sidewalks. wheni say defective there's minor defects, it's only when it's a substantial or major defects.and i'd say in that situation at least a couple of inches or so.>>> steven karp: yeah, what about that situation, pete, let's say you're in a store, we normallysee it in a store, normally in a food store

for some reason. there'll be something onthe floor that was spilled there, is that a good case?>>> peter hart: sometimes it could be, sometimes not. you have to prove notice. the propertyowner has to either have been aware that there has been a defect in the property, and hadthe time to correct the defect. >>> steven karp: now you always give a goodexample, i've heard you give to clients, about grapes in a store.>>> peter hart: yeah a perfect example, in a supermarket you come around a corner andthe grapes that were squished on the floor, you fall down and break your hip. say forexample a young kid came around the corner a minute before and bumped into the bin andknocked the grapes to the floor, i submit

that they're not gonna be held responsible.>>> steven karp: my client slipped on milk or slipped on a grape and we don't know ifthat was there twenty seconds before or an hour before.>>> peter hart: are the records kept, are there videos?>>> steven karp: and you hear the owner of the store come over and say, "hey i told youto clean that up twenty minutes ago and you didn't!" that's a good case.>>> peter hart: oh absolutely! and i had a case where somebody came out of a grocerystore and the owner had moved in some supplies and left the wooden pallets right outsidethe door and they actually happened to be the same color or blended into the sidewalk.the gentleman came around the corner, caught

his right food, went down, two or three operationstrying to get better! was that a case? i suspected, yeah. he knew the pallets there, the ownerput the pallets there. they shouldn't have been in the position that they were.>>> steven karp: and my most interesting case was someone, there was a display in the store,a display going down the steps of little trinkets, and it was mesmerizing to see it. well, youdon't put it down the steps because people normally know there's steps there but they'relooking at the display - and down the steps they went! we get a lot of calls in the wintertime, i went outside and i slipped in a parking lot somewhere - do i have a case?>>> peter hart: um, probably not if it's immediately after the snow storm because there's a dutyto clean up walks, make them reasonably safe,

not completely safe, and they have a certainamount of time to do it. it's kinda that notice issue, that a lot of statutes in pennsylvania,a lot of local ordinances give the property owner twenty-four hours of so to clean itup. >>> steven karp: it's all what's reasonable.>>> peter hart: that's right, it all boils down to reasonableness!