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Handrails and Dangerous Stairs

Clancy & Diaz, LLP just settled a large premises liability claim where required handrails were not built onto a flight of dangerous stairs. Our client tripped and fell while trying to descend the dangerous stairs and ended up losing her leg. Our position was that the stairs were dangerous as a matter of law because the lacked the required handrails. The 2010 California Building Code provides, in part:

1009.12 Handrails.

Stairways shall have handrails on each side

We argued that the landlord was negligent as a matter of law because the steps were not up to code. Evidence Code section 669 (Negligence Per Se) calls for a presumption that the defendant was negligent if the plaintiff can can show:

(1) The defendant violated a statute, ordinance, or regulation of a public entity;

(2) The violation proximately caused death or injury to person or property;

(3) The death or injury resulted from an occurrence of the nature which the statute, ordinance, or regulation was designed to prevent; and

(4) The person suffering the death or the injury to his person or property was one of the class of persons for whose protection the statute, ordinance, or regulation was adopted.

Now, not all steps are required to have handrails. But if the did not have handrails, it is worth looking into what code applied (depending on the facts, an older or newer version of the building code may apply to your case). If you can show that the code violation was a part of the accident, you are well on your way!

Pete Clancy is an Oakland personal injury attorney. He was named a Northern California Rising Star in the area of personal injury in 2010, 2011 and 2012.