How Maintenance Records Can Reveal Negligence After an Injury

When someone suffers an injury because of a dangerous condition on another person’s property, photographs and witness statements may provide important evidence. However, another source of information can be just as valuable: maintenance records.

Inspection logs, repair requests, work orders, cleaning schedules, service reports, and other records can help establish what a property owner or manager knew about a dangerous condition and what was done about it.

At Lipsig, Freund & Wisell, our New York City-based team investigates the evidence surrounding premises liability claims to determine whether negligence contributed to an injury.

What Can Maintenance Records Show?

Property owners and managers should be maintaining records showing when particular areas were inspected, cleaned, repaired, or serviced. The records should also document complaints made by tenants, customers, employees, or other visitors.

For example, if someone slips on a wet floor in a Manhattan commercial building. The property owner may claim that employees regularly inspected the area and that no dangerous conditions were reported. Maintenance records could help establish whether those inspections occurred.

Records may show:

• When an area was last inspected
• Whether employees reported a dangerous condition
• When repairs were requested
• Whether previous repairs were completed
• How frequently an area was cleaned or maintained
• Whether similar problems occurred before the accident

Why Does the Timing of an Inspection Matter?

New York premises liability cases often involve questions about actual or constructive notice. Actual notice means the property owner was directly told or personally saw the dangerous condition that caused an injury. Constructive notice means the danger existed long enough or was obvious enough that the owner legally should have known about it through reasonable care, even if they didn’t see it.

Meaning, a property owner may be responsible when they created a dangerous condition or had sufficient notice of the condition to discover and correct it.

Courts will also consider whether maintenance records demonstrate when an area was last cleaned or inspected before an accident. This can make a seemingly routine maintenance log an important piece of evidence.

What If the Records Show Previous Problems?

Maintenance records can become particularly significant when they reveal repeated complaints or repairs involving the same condition.

Consider an elevator accident in a Brooklyn apartment building. If service records show that the elevator had experienced repeated malfunctions before the accident, those records may raise questions about whether the problem was known and whether appropriate repairs were made.

The same principle can apply to broken stairways, damaged flooring, inadequate lighting, leaking pipes, defective doors, sidewalk hazards, and other dangerous conditions.

What Happens When Records Are Missing?

The absence of maintenance records does not automatically prove negligence. However, missing records can raise important questions about whether inspections occurred and whether the property owner can establish when the condition was last addressed.

In some cases, a defendant’s inability to produce maintenance records can affect its ability to establish that it lacked notice of a dangerous condition.

How Can an NYC Personal Injury Attorney Help?

When property owners, managers, and insurance companies argue that the property owner did not know about the dangerous condition or attempt to shift blame for the accident onto the injured person, we push back.

Our attorneys investigate the facts instead of relying solely on the insurance company’s version of events. We can examine available records, identify inconsistencies, interview witnesses, and build evidence showing what happened before and after the accident.

If you were injured because of a dangerous condition in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, or Staten Island, contact Lipsig, Freund & Wisell or call (212) 285-3300 for a free case review.