YANML: Is a restaurant liable for an injury in the bathroom?

May 6, 2012 7:52 AM

My daughter was in the bathroom stall and got her thumb pinched in the door when another patron open the door. Her thumb was cut and needed six stitches. ER visits are expensive, should the restaurant help cover the costs?
posted by turtlefu to Law & Government (28 answers total)

What could the restaurant have done to stop this from happening?
posted by Sternmeyer at 7:57 AM on May 6, 2012 [36 favorites]

Other than happening at the restaurant, what responsibility do they have? Was it an employee of the restaurant that opened the door? I'm guessing not, since you specify them as another patron.

IANAL, but it's kind of bananas to ask the restaurant to cover some costs just because it happened in their bathroom.
posted by InsanePenguin at 7:58 AM on May 6, 2012 [9 favorites]

Was the door improperly installed or maintained?
posted by decathecting at 8:00 AM on May 6, 2012

I mean, unless there is a detail to this story that somehow could place the restaurant at fault.... no.

I guess you could try to sue the other patron..., but i don't see how this is anything but just an accident.
posted by ish__ at 8:01 AM on May 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I admit it was an accident. But - there are different types of doors that this would not have happened with. I am assuming the restaurant would carry liability insurance. So why shouldn't their insurance pay instead of mine?
posted by turtlefu at 8:04 AM on May 6, 2012

You should ask a lawyer. Premises liability can be complicated and might not always work the way people would expect.
posted by J. Wilson at 8:04 AM on May 6, 2012 [7 favorites]

What state or country did this happen in?

Also, was the latch on the door functional?
posted by box at 8:05 AM on May 6, 2012

My daughter was in the bathroom stall and got her thumb pinched in the door when another patron open the door. Her thumb was cut and needed six stitches. ER visits are expensive, should the restaurant help cover the costs?

Yes, definitely. See a lawyer.
posted by jayder at 8:06 AM on May 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you had a guest in your house, and your guest's child got her hand caught in your bathroom door, would you offer to pay the emergency room fees? Not to answer a question with a question, but I believe that however you answer that question should answer this one.
posted by pazazygeek at 8:09 AM on May 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: I didn't inspect the latch. This happened in Colorado.
posted by turtlefu at 8:09 AM on May 6, 2012

Contact your insurance company and file a bodily injury claim. You should be able to get a call back from an adjuster that can help guide you with this. Also contact a lawyer as J.Wilson said.

My personal opinion though is that the restaurant wouldn't be liable for having those particular doors installed unless several people have experienced a similar incident with the doors. Although, I would assume that this is very rare.
posted by livinglearning at 8:12 AM on May 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

If you had a guest in your house, and your guest's child got her hand caught in your bathroom door, would you offer to pay the emergency room fees? Not to answer a question with a question, but I believe that however you answer that question should answer this one.

The common law pretty clearly distinguishes being a guest in a home from being a guest in a restaurant, licensee versus invitee, and the duties to these guests are different. So while it may seem like how you'd treat a guest's injury in your home should govern this situation, in law it is definitely not so. There is a higher standard of care toward restaurant guests (and business patrons).
posted by jayder at 8:14 AM on May 6, 2012 [4 favorites]

If you're reluctant right now to pay for a lawyer, please keep in mind that personal injury lawyers often give free initial consultations.

Definitely also talk with your insurance company. If someone else should have to pay, they should want that to happen.
posted by J. Wilson at 8:15 AM on May 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

If you have insurance, you might be able to just let them deal with it. Make sure they're aware of the circumstances, and if there's enough money in it to make it worth pursuing, they can sue the restaurant on your behalf to recover the money they paid you. That way, you've already got your claim covered and you aren't out of pocket, and it's up to your insurance to get the money back from other channels.

(IANAL, this is just based on things I read on the internet about Subrogation. I'm not sure how this would work in practice. But your insurance company probably does.)
posted by jacquilynne at 8:20 AM on May 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'd say that the patron who opened the door onto your daughter's finger was more "responsible" than the restaurant, no? I mean, they were the one who directly caused the incident, if they hadn't come along the door wouldn't have done anything.

I mean, I broke my foot in my local restaurant but I don't hold them responsible. (They didn't compell me to do a kickstep to "Come On Eileen" after that third drink on New Year's Eve, after all.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:37 AM on May 6, 2012 [5 favorites]

By the time you pay a lawyer to pursue this, wouldn't you have spent more than the medical treatment cost?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 9:16 AM on May 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

You might just contact the restaurant and ask them if they have liability insurance that covers accidents to patrons. Briefly explain to them what happened and ask for their help They may well have insurance and they might even pay the deductible. Escalating this to a lawsuit and involving attorneys may well be unnecessary, and perhaps inappropriate. Some poster may tell you to not talk to them directly as it might compromise future litigation. I am guessing the amount of damages involved in this ( while significant to you) is not very interesting to a lawyer unless you think there should be punitive damages. I also doubt that this is enough money for an attorney to take on a contingent fee basis.
posted by rmhsinc at 9:35 AM on May 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

No.

I don't even understand the reasoning for why they should. Because it was their door? By that logic if someone accidentally pushes someone else into your car in a parking lot and they are injured due to hitting your car you should pay their expenses too?

And to the other mefites suggesting that the restaurant should pay; if the door was in proper working order then on what ethical or moral grounds is it the restaurants responsibility?
posted by Cosine at 10:10 AM on May 6, 2012 [14 favorites]

The OP didn't ask if the restaurant was legally on the hook, so I don't think the "see a lawyer" comments are necessarily a good answer. The OP asked SHOULD the restaurant pay for this. To which I think it's pretty clear the answer is "no". The restaurant, whether or not they could be legally forced by an aggressive lawyer to pay for this, should not have to do so barring some information we have not been provided.
posted by Justinian at 10:48 AM on May 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Although I guess the question in the title is different and is about liability. So there are two questions. 1) A lawyer would have to tell you if the restaurant is liable. 2) They shouldn't have to pay.
posted by Justinian at 10:49 AM on May 6, 2012

Mod note: Folks, answer the question being asked. Take additional side comments to email. Thnks.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:04 AM on May 6, 2012

You are asking random people on the internet a question about premises liability that only a few dozen people in the world could even begin to properly answer and they all live in your state. Personal injury lawyers tend to advertise liberally and hang out in offices near courthouses.

To get non-shitty advice you will need to look a couple of them up and call them, they tend not to charge for initial consultations.
posted by Blasdelb at 11:10 AM on May 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

The insurance company will likely ask you about the details of the injury when processing your claim to see if there are other parties they should pursue to recover their own costs. This will play itself out over the course of the process. The last thing an insurance company wants to do is pay out any money. If there's a way for the restaurant to pay rather than for them to pay, they will figure out how to make that happen.
posted by deanc at 11:10 AM on May 6, 2012

When my kid had to get a couple of stitches in his scalp a few years ago, my insurance company sent me a form asking if it happened on somebody else's property or in a public area, and had a space to fill out the address if in fact it did happen outside of the home. I had some minor injury later and they sent the same form again.

I think calling your insurance company is the easiest way to get this figured out. J.Wilson has it.
posted by selfmedicating at 4:51 PM on May 6, 2012

Your health insurance company may go after the restaurant's insurance company to cover its own outlay, but I don't think that will get you anything to cover your out of pocket expenses. For that, you'll need legal advice.
posted by expialidocious at 6:03 PM on May 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Some comments deleted; seriously, this is not the spot to blow off steam about lawsuits/insurance. If you have practical information, advice, or experience to offer go ahead and answer, otherwise please pass this one by.
posted by taz (staff) at 3:21 AM on May 7, 2012

Anecdata - I mention above that I did not plan to file a claim against the restaurant where I broke my foot (because it'd be pretty clear to a panel review that it was my own damn fault), but I was approached by someone from either my doctor's office or my insurance company asking whether I was considering it. Their inquiry was prompted by my consultation with my orthopedist; someone from some nebulous organization that had been referred by my doctor called me to ask about the incident and whether I planned to file a claim against the restaurant, and I explained what happened and clarified that no, I was not. The person I spoke with didn't say anything, but I sensed she agreed that "yeah, this isn't a claim-worthy thing".

So there is a chance that you may have someone come to you to ask about whether you want to file a claim; perhaps they can advise you.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:42 AM on May 7, 2012

Response by poster: In case anyone was interested, it turns out the restaurant's insurance company has a no fault policy that covers the hospital fees.
posted by turtlefu at 1:34 PM on May 10, 2012 [3 favorites]