Tag Archives: Liability

by | October 29, 2011 · 9:26 am

Hospitality Industry Property Risks: New York Hotel Elevator Malfunctions And "Plummets" 8 Floors

 “There was an elevator malfunction… Our security team responded to the incident immediately… All guests were safely evacuated… We are ensuring the elevator car in question undergoes a thorough inspection…”

 They got into an elevator and headed down from the rooftop terrace, but when another couple got in on the 16th floor, the compartment dropped and plummeted eight floors before stopping.

The group, which also included British actor Guy Burnet, actress Rosie Fellner and comedian Seth Herzog, was leaving the afterparty for new movie Janie Jones at the Gramercy Park Hotel in Manhattan on Thursday night (27Oct11).

Janie Jones director Rosenthal tells Nymag.com, “We’ve all had a couple of drinks… and we’re just piling into the elevator… Everyone is yelling and hooting… (The couple) decide to jump in, and as soon as they jump in, the thing starts plummeting down. His girlfriend is lucky she didn’t get killed because her foot was barely inside the door when the elevator dropped. I think we fell eight stories before the emergency brake went off. We initially thought we’d gone all the way to the basement and bounced on the springs.”

Emergency services were called to the scene, but the frustrated group decided not to wait, and took action themselves, climbing out of a gap in the doors onto a floor.

For more:  http://www.hollywood.com/news/Actors_trapped_in_elevator_fall/8028652

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by | July 28, 2011 · 11:04 am

Hospitality Industry Liability Risks: Florida Hotel Sued By Victim Of ATV Crash For "Serving Alcoholic Drinks" To Defendent

“…The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, contends that the Clevelander Hotel regularly allowed on-duty police officers to drink alcohol and hang out at its nightclubs…”
 
A lawsuit filed Thursday claims that a popular South Beach hotel regularly served alcoholic drinks to an on-duty police officer who later crashed his speeding all-terrain vehicle into two people strolling the beach before dawn, seriously injuring both.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Kitzie Nicanor, 29, seeks unspecified damages from the Clevelander Hotel and Derick Kuilan, who was fired from the Miami Beach Police Department shortly after the July 3 crash. Kuilan, 30, also faces criminal charges in the case.

Nicanor suffered a traumatic brain injury that will likely require years of rehabilitation, said her attorney Frank Toral. Nicanor, a Seattle resident who has a 1-year-old son, remains hospitalized in stable condition. Her parents are caring for her son.

Earlier this week, Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega said his department was investigating whether on-duty drinking by officers, clearly banned under agency policy, was nevertheless more common than expected.

http://www.newsok.com/atv-crash-lawsuit-names-sobe-hotel-fired-cop/article/feed/280408?custom_click=pod_headline_usnational-news

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by | May 30, 2011 · 10:56 am

Hospitality Industry Guest Injury Risks: Children Seriously Injured In UK Hotel "Jumping Castle" When Wind Gust Sends It Crashing Into A Telephone Pole

“Seventy per cent of all injuries on jumping castles occur from falls, most of these result in fractures… there can also be concussions,”

“…Three children in the UK were seriously injured after a jumping castle they were playing in was lifted off the ground by a wind gust before crashing into a telegraph pole….”

Seven-year-old Koby Dakin, his brother Kyle Dakin, 10, and eight-year-old Imogen Wright were thrown into the air after winds exceeding 60 km/h ripped the castle from its supports during a christening party at the White House Hotel in Whitby, North Yorkshire, at the weekend.

Mr Young’s son Koby was airlifted to hospital suffering a broken leg, two arm fractures, a broken rib, punctured lung and head trauma, while his older brother was treated in hospital for a leg injury.

Imogen Wright was hospitalised with head injuries and a concussion.

For more:  http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8255791/children-injured-after-jumping-castle-blows-away

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by | March 28, 2011 · 12:10 pm

Hospitality Industry Legal Compliance Issues: Hotels Must Be Compliant With "Americans With Disabilities Act" (ADA) Regulations Including "Mobility Issues" For "Devices Other Than Wheelchairs"

Federal law requires hotels to give people with mobility issues access to their properties, including allowing them to use devices other than wheelchairs as long as they do not raise legitimate safety concerns. The type, size and speed of the device, along with the amount of pedestrian traffic all factor into the decision.

One major change deals with the information available to people making room reservations. The idea is that people with disabilities should be able to book hotel rooms with the same efficiency, immediacy and convenience as those who do not need accessible guest rooms. The provision applies whether people are making reservations by phone, in person, on a website or though a third-party provider such as a travel agent or OTA.

Hotels must identify and describe the hotel’s accessible features in enough detail so potential guests can determine if the hotel can meet their needs, McCullough said.

Hotels also have an obligation to hold accessible guest rooms for people with disabilities unless all other guestrooms of that type have been rented. For example, McCullough said, if a hotel has 25 double-bed rooms and two are designated accessible, the reservation service must rent all 23 of non-accessible before it rents the two to people without disabilities. The rule does not apply to unique rooms such as a penthouse or bridal suite.

The difficulty is making sure that the reservation system accommodates this requirement, since the rule applies to reservations made through all channels.

“That will be a technical hurdle for your companies to leap over within the 11 months,” McCullough said. “I hope you are working on this particular issue.”

Another change requires that hotels honor a specific guest room request from customers with disabilities, even if it’s a policy of a hotel to not hold specific rooms.

For more:  http://www.hotelinteractive.com/article.aspx?articleid=20172

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by | February 1, 2011 · 5:16 pm

Hotel Industry Liability Risks: 2-Year Old Falls Down Elevator Shaft At New York Hotel After Child Opens Door That Should Have Required A Key

 The toddler then fell through a 16-inch gap. Inspectors say the switch should have required a key to operate or should have been in a locked panel.

Newer elevators are designed so there is no gap between the door and wall. Building owners have until 2015 to have older elevators retrofitted.

The chief building inspector in Joliet says a code violation played a role in an elevator accident which injured a 2-year-old boy last week. The child fell down an elevator shaft at the plaza hotel.

Inspectors tell the Joliet Herald News that the boy probably flipped a switch which stopped the elevator between floors and opened the doors. The toddler then fell through a 16-inch gap. Inspectors say the switch should have required a key to operate or should have been in a locked panel.

Newer elevators are designed so there is no gap between the door and wall. Building owners have until 2015 to have older elevators retrofitted.

The state fire marshal’s office has temporarily suspended the licenses of two inspectors who certified that elevator in October.

For more:  http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7932805

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by | November 27, 2010 · 6:53 pm

Hotel Industry Liability Issues: “Bed Bug” Court Verdicts Have Recently Found Hotel Owners Liable When “Conscious And Deliberate Behavior” Allowed Infestations To Proliferate

The recent surge in bed bugs has created an uptick in litigation against motel owners and landlords alike.  duLac’s article focuses on a Maryland attorney who is filing a series

Bed Beg infestations at hotels can result in guilty verdicts against hotel owners if conscious and deliberate behavior led to infestations going untreated.

of bed bug liability suits.  The typical compensatory damages claim is $200,000, and many of the suits claim punies.  Bed bug suits, in Maryland and elsewhere, generally face three major issues.

First, plaintiff will have to prove notice on the part of the motel owner or landlord.  Actual notice is best, but constructive notice should suffice.  For constructive notice, the focus will be the length of time the condition (bed bugs) has been in place.  The Maryland suits contain mostly conclusory allegations, so discovery will be important.

Second, plaintiff will have to establish compensatory damages.  Bed bugs are nasty creatures, and I have a lot of sympathy for people impacted by them.  Plaintiffs in Mathias got a jury verdict for compensatory damages of $5,000.  A Florida attorney quoted in duLac’s article is leaving the bed bug liability field because the damages are too small.  He noted that he settled one case for $4,000 and another for $10,000.

Finally, a fairly standard punies regime requires a plaintiff to prove some type of conscious and deliberate behavior on the part of the defendant.  In Mathias, the hotel owners were informed about the bed bugs.  Instead of paying for a $500 extermination, the owners allowed the bed bug situation to fester for nearly two years.  It was widely known the hotel had bed bugs.  There were certain rooms that employees were not supposed to rent out because of the bugs, yet the rooms were rented if there were not enough other rooms available.  Guests were informed the bugs were ticks (as if that’s better!).  Under these circumstances, the court upheld a punies verdict of $186,000.  If proving notice in the Maryland cases will require the discovery of significant facts, for punies the bar is even higher.

For more:  http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/tortsprof/2010/11/bed-bug-liability.html

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by | August 26, 2010 · 2:16 pm

Hotel Industry Liability Risks: Hotel Guests’ 4-Year Old Child Finds “Condom” In Room And Family Has Retained Attorneys To File Suit Against Hotel Owners

Jones has since filed a report with the Atlanta Police Department and the family engaged lawyers to negotiate a settlement with the hotel. If no settlement is reached, the lawyer plans to file suit.

Wyndham Hotels said it was “disturbed to learn of the allegations,” but that the hotel in question was individually owned and operated. It has been sold since the incident occurred, the hotel chain said.

A 4-year-old boy was being tested for sexually transmitted diseases after he found a used condom in an Atlanta hotel room and tried to blow it up, thinking it was a balloon, his family said.

The boy found the condom in the sheets of a bed in the hotel where his family was staying, according to his grandmother Carmen Jones.

According to the statement, she then called hotel management and asked for alcohol and mouthwash for her grandson. The hotel manager came to the room, put on latex gloves and took the condom from her, citing “company policy.”

“He had his tongue in it,” Jones said in a statement released by her lawyers. “I immediately took it out of his mouth.”

The boy sickened and developed sores on his tongue not long after, Jones said. She took him to Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta to have him tested for sexually transmitted diseases, including herpes and HIV, a local CBS affiliate reported.

He had “little white blisters all on the top of his mouth, on his tongue, inside the mouth, inside the lip, the bottom lip. It was all over,” Jones told the CBS affiliate.

For more:  http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/boy-tested-for-stds-after-finding-condom-in-atlanta-hotel-room/19609907

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by | June 9, 2010 · 8:13 am

Hotel Maintenance And Liability Risks: New Engineering Supervisor Details Problems At An Older Hotel Property In Northern California

 I started a job as a Engineering Supervisor at a  hotel in the Greater Sacramento area…..

  • The first thing, I noticed wrong, was my maintenance department people– were being drowned by other department duties, like Shuttling, Banquets, Shampooing the rooms, which takes hours at a time and is a Houseman job!
  • The second big thing, I noticed was Black Mold — harvesting, under the toilets in the rooms only to be thrown on the walls and ceiling by the exhaust fan distributing it. The third thing, I noticed was the ventilators on the roof not working, not even having any power in the wires? What the ventilators due, in a not working mode, is keep the rooms humid and acting like a fertilizer for Mold to grow!
  • The problems kept coming and I would keep finding them. I tried to order supplies for the control of the mold and for special tablets for the A/C unit’s pans to kill fungus and bacteria mold that would mutate in the pans. After cleaning some of the A/C units I realized that these units have not been cleaned in over twenty years! This particular situation caused an out break in the seventies called the Legion Air Disease — killing hundreds of people at one timeGoggle it!
  • The pool — was scheduled for it’s new drains so they would meet code. I believe my position was sacrificed to pay for those drains. That’s ok! As long as it is a safety thing and gets done? The rest of the pool’s equipment needs to be ripped out, its all old and bad! The deck needs to be resurfaced.
  • I had the corporate fix holes in the Stairwells and a couple of the Boilers but all five boilers need to be replaced. I got their programming computer system– working and computers for the front desk to work for them, while I was their.

For more:   http://www.stargazette.com/article/20100605/VIEWPOINTS03/6050360/Hello–my-friends-we-meet-again–Isn’-t-funny-how-time-can-turns-around–

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by | May 23, 2010 · 7:09 am

Hospitality Industry Insurance: Directors’ And Officers’ Liability (D&O) Insurance Must Have “Dedicated Limits” Coverage To Cover Legal Defense Costs

“…the industry invented what’s known as dedicated limits–sometimes called difference-in-conditions–coverage. This coverage sits on top of and is excess to both the indemnity contracts and the company’s general D&O policy and is specifically intended to cover the situation where the company cannot or simply will not advance the director and officer his defense costs for matters with criminal law implications or otherwise…”

(From a RiskAndInsurance.com article)   Typically, directors and officers have an employment agreement, corporate by-law or separate contract that requires the company to “advance” (i.e., loan) them their legal defense costs should they become involved in a suit or investigation that could have criminal law implications for them. This is a director’s and officer’s first line of protection.

The programs then also typically insure directors and officers under D&O insurance policies. “Side A” of such policies insures them directly. “Side B” reimburses the company if it advances them money for defense costs under the company’s by-law or contract. And “Side C” covers the company’s fees if it is a defendant in a securities case.

Because all the coverages fall under a single limit, whatever is paid to the company under one side reduces the total coverage available. Plus, if there’s a big self-insured retention–a deductible–the directors and officers may have to pay it out of their pockets.

It’s for that reason (among others) that the industry invented what’s known as dedicated limits–sometimes called difference-in-conditions–coverage. This coverage sits on top of and is excess to both the indemnity contracts and the company’s general D&O policy and is specifically intended to cover the situation where the company cannot or simply will not advance the director and officer his defense costs for matters with criminal law implications or otherwise.

Most companies, however, do not have this coverage. Perhaps this complicated structure may have caused directors and officers in the past not to investigate their protection in great detail.

 For more:   http://www.riskandinsurance.com/story.jsp?storyId=395653638

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by | May 1, 2010 · 5:41 am

Restaurant Accident Liability And Prevention: Preventative Maintenance And Workplace Safety Save Owners Money In Long Run

The average slip-and-fall accident costs a restaurant about $12,000, and since most locations will experience between three and five of these per year, anything that can bring those figures down is good for the bottom line.

“When the budget’s lean, owners often look at a growing problem and say, ‘We don’t have the personnel or money to fix this right now,’” Riggs says. “But preventative maintenance is always easier than trying to fix a catastrophic problem after something’s been neglected.”

(From a QSRMagazine.com article)   Before Peter Riggs became a vice president with the 173-unit franchise Pita Pit, he was a franchise owner. Starting out in the business, Riggs thought he knew what to look for when it came to preventative maintenance and workplace safety. He watched for spills on the floor. He made regular equipment service appointments. He did all the things an owner-operator should do to ensure his location is in top working order. But one day a chair broke, and he realized he still had a lot to learn.

“The chair got old and one of its parts just came loose and broke,” Riggs says. “There was no particular reason beyond wear and tear. You know stuff like that happens, but you really don’t think about it in relation to your own business unless someone tells you to watch out for it.”

Fortunately, no one was injured, but Riggs still likes to tell the anecdote because he says it illustrates an important point when talking about site maintenance: Attention to detail is everything. And as owners and operators look to save money during the troubled economy, it’s the small, preventative particulars that often get lost in the mix. And it isn’t just a matter of safety; it’s also a matter of profitability.

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/what_matters_most/141/prevention-1.phtml

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