Why This School Accident Case Wouldn't Survive in New York

Sometimes, regardless of the jurisdiction, the result will likely turn out the same.

Which is exactly what seems to be in this school negligence case, which involved a teenager's slip and fall on a puddle of water at her school. Despite needed corrective surgery for the ligament damage to her knee - which all but destroyed her dreams of joining an elite unit of the Army, an appeals judge recently dismissed her school negligence, finding that the school had taken reasonable precautions to prevent the hallway from becoming wet and dangerous during inclement weather, and therefore, they could not be held liable in negligence for her injuries.

It is almost a near certainty that the same result would have occurred had this accident and lawsuit been brought in New York, because under New York law, the school is only held to the same standard of care as a reasonably prudent parent under the same circumstances (for more on this topic, please see "How to Prove Your School Negligence Case Under New York Law"). And the plaintiff would be required to show that the school either knew, or should have known about this dangerous wet condition in the hallway, but that the school failed to clean it up or otherwise remedy the condition in a reasonable amount of time - a truly difficult thing to prove.