Accident Lawsuits Highlight Potential Liabilities of Negligent Maintenance for Community Associations

Laura Manning-Hudson, the managing shareholder of our West Palm Beach office, authored an article titled “Accident Lawsuits Highlight Potential Liabilities of Negligent Maintenance for Community Associations” for the Miami Herald‘s “Real Estate Counselor” column. The article focuses on three recent lawsuits in Palm Beach County Circuit Court involving an electric scooter accident and two falls, one on the deck at a community pool and the other on a sidewalk. It discusses how Florida community associations must exercise reasonable care in maintaining their properties and taking necessary precautions to prevent foreseeable hazards, and these cases illustrate the potential liability that associations could face if they are negligent in the duty of care owed to the safety of their residents and guests.  Laura’s article reads:

. . . Robert Clarfield, a resident of the Villas of Boca Barwood in Boca Raton, was riding his electric scooter through his community’s parking lot last December when he claims he struck uneven pavement and a pothole. As a result of this alleged dangerous condition on the roadway, his lawsuit against the HOA states he suffered an accident that resulted in significant permanent injuries.

Clarfield’s suit accuses the association of negligent maintenance of its parking lot pavement, creating a vehicle and pedestrian hazard, and failing to adequately inspect the pavement. It claims he suffered a permanent bodily injury, disability, physical impairment, disfigurement, hospital/medical expenses, lost earnings, the loss of his ability to lead and enjoy a normal life, and pain and suffering of both a physical and mental nature.

The Boca West Country Club and its Akoya community were also hit with a recent lawsuit in the same circuit court involving an injury on their property. Barbara Glazer alleges in her suit that her leg pushed through a paver on the community’s pool deck, causing her to sustain injuries that required surgery.

Her suit alleges the association, property management company and several other defendants failed to properly construct, inspect and maintain the pool deck and its pavers, causing an unreasonably dangerous and hazardous condition. As a result, the complaint states she underwent a knee surgery and also suffered pain, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, lost earnings, medical/rehabilitation expenses, and lost capacity for the enjoyment of life.

Kristin McCuin filed a similar lawsuit in late June against the VillageWalk of Wellington homeowners association and its management company. Her suit claims that on April 14 she was running on a sidewalk managed by both defendants when she tripped and fell over an unlevel and broken section of pavement.

 McCuin’s complaint asserts that both the HOA and its management company had a duty to properly maintain, inspect and repair the sidewalk in order to keep it in safe condition, but they were negligent and failed to do so. As a result, abrupt changes in elevation and misaligned sections persisted despite the defendants being reasonably expected to be aware of the dangers.

McCuin’s suit alleges she sustained permanent bodily injuries including physical and mental pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, significant scarring, medical expenses for hospitalization and nursing care, lost earnings, and lost future earning capacity.

All three of these lawsuits seek damages in excess of the court’s $50,000 jurisdictional minimum. Depending on the level of neglect, if any, and the circumstances that are ultimately revealed in the coming discovery, depositions and hearings in these cases, these lawsuits could result in settlements or verdicts that are significantly larger than that jurisdictional threshold.

Needless to say, if the allegations in these lawsuits are proven through litigation to represent valid claims of true neglect involving reasonably obvious potential hazards, the boards of directors, property managers and other professionals for these communities will rue their past actions or inactions. They will lament any missed opportunities to have dedicated the time and resources that it would have taken to prevent any such hazards from ever appearing or persisting.  Those measures not only may have prevented the pain and suffering of the accident victims; they could also have avoided substantial additional costs for the unit owners and insurers. . .

Laura concludes her article by writing that these three similar lawsuits against community associations filed during the last few weeks in just one of Florida’s 20 circuit courts offer an important reminder for all of the state’s community association boards of directors and property managers. She counsels that their duty of care for the safety of those in their community is of paramount importance, and any signs of potential hazards should not be ignored.

Our firm salutes Laura for sharing her insights into the takeaways from these recent lawsuits with the readers of the Miami Herald.  We write about important matters for community associations in our Miami Herald column, which appears every two weeks on Sundays, and we encourage association directors, members and property managers to click here and subscribe to our newsletter to receive our future articles.