Filthy toilet may be the ‘cause’ of slip and fall
Few things are more unpleasant than being faced with a bathroom at work or on the road that is unusable because it’s an unsanitary mess.
But can the owner of an unclean restroom be liable if someone is injured on the way to finding an alternative spot to answer nature’s call?
At least one court thinks that the causal connection between the defect and the injury is not too tenuous to impose liability.
Earlier this month, the 6th Circuit concluded that an employer could be liable under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act for injuries suffered by a railroad worker who slipped and fell on his way to relieve himself alongside the tracks.
James Szekeres was a brakeman for a CSX locomotive operating between Cleveland and Valley View, Ohio. On Jan. 4, 2006, Szekeres needed to go to the bathroom, but found the toilet on the locomotive to be too dirty to use.
At a muddy switching station, Szekeres left the locomotive and proceeded up an embankment to find a private spot to relieve himself.
On the way up the embankment, Szekeres slipped and wrenched his knee.
The 6th Circuit, reversing a district court, concluded that there was a sufficient causal connection between the brakeman’s injuries and the dirty bathroom on the locomotive for him to proceed on his claim for damages under FELA.
“Szekeres testified that he slipped from accumulated mud on his boots from both the area behind the switch and from climbing the embankment, so there is a direct tie between his inability to use the onboard toilet facility and his accident,” the court said. (Szekeres v. CSX Transportation)
- Pat Murphy
