Premises Liability in Hawaiʻi: Slip-and-Falls and Negligent Security
If you were hurt on someone else’s property, the key question is usually not just whether you fell. It is what the owner knew about the danger, when they knew it, and what they did about it.
Many states still sort injured visitors into the old common-law groups of invitee, licensee, and trespasser. Hawaiʻi does not. Since the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court’s decision in Pickard v. City and County of Honolulu, an occupier of land owes a duty of reasonable care toward all persons whose presence on the property is reasonably foreseeable. That makes Hawaiʻi premises law fairly simple to state but hard to prove. Everything turns on what a reasonable owner in that position should have done.
Who Can Be Responsible
One fall on one walkway can involve several parties. Each has its own insurer and its own story about who was in control:
- The owner of the land or building.
- The hotel, resort, or retail operator running the business on it.
- A property-management company under contract.
- A condominium or apartment association and its managing agent.
- A janitorial, landscaping, or maintenance contractor.
- A private security company.
- A general contractor or subcontractor during construction or renovation.
It is important to find the right defendants early. The deadline to sue does not stop while you figure out who was responsible for the mat, the light, the railing, or the locked gate.
Common Claims
- Slip-and-falls on wet floors, spilled product, or unmarked transitions.
- Trip-and-falls on broken pavement, raised thresholds, or unlit steps.
- Stairway and railing failures, and falls from height on decks or lānai.
- Falling merchandise and unsecured fixtures.
- Pool, beach-access, and water-feature injuries.
- Inadequate lighting and inadequate warning of a known hazard.
- Negligent security, such as an assault, robbery, or shooting that reasonable precautions would have prevented.
- Dog bites and other animal attacks on the property.
- Elevator, escalator, and parking-structure injuries.
Questions We Are Asked Most
No. A premises claim is a negligence claim. The owner does not guarantee that no accident will happen. In general, you have to show that a condition on the property was unreasonably dangerous. You also have to show that the owner or operator knew or should have known about it, that they failed to fix it or adequately warn about it, and that this failure caused your injury and your losses.
Most of these cases are won or lost on that middle point: what the owner knew.
Actual notice means someone told them, or they saw it. Constructive notice means the hazard had been there long enough that a reasonably careful owner inspecting the property would have found it. A puddle that appeared thirty seconds before you walked through it is a very different case from a leak that had been reported three times.
Almost all of the proof on this point is in the defendant’s own files. That includes inspection and floor-sweep logs, maintenance tickets and work orders, prior incident reports for the same location, vendor contracts, staffing schedules, and surveillance video. Much of it is routinely recorded over or thrown out on a schedule. An early written demand to preserve that material is often the most valuable thing we do in the first month of a case.
For most personal-injury claims in Hawaiʻi the limitation period is two years from the date of injury. But that is the latest you can file, not a schedule to aim for. And it is not always the deadline that applies.
If the injury happened on county or State property, such as a public sidewalk, a county park, a public school or a state facility, a separate written-notice requirement applies. That deadline is measured in months, not years. Claims involving public property can be lost long before the two-year mark simply because notice was never filed. If your injury involves government property, assume the clock is already running.
Usually not. Hawaiʻi uses comparative negligence. If you are partly at fault, your recovery is reduced by your share of the fault. It is not wiped out. You are barred from recovering only if your share of the fault is greater than the combined fault of everyone you are suing.
That is why defendants push the “you weren’t looking” argument so hard. Every percentage point of fault they put on you comes straight off your recovery. It is also why the physical evidence matters. How bright was the lighting? What was the coefficient of friction on that tile? Was the warning sign where the incident report says it was?
It is a claim that a property owner failed to take reasonable precautions against criminal conduct that was foreseeable. The person who assaulted or robbed you is responsible for their own conduct. The separate question is whether the owner, knowing what they knew about that location, should have done more.
Foreseeability is proved with records. These include prior calls for service at the address, the property’s own incident logs, complaints from guests or tenants, the security contract and what it promised, guard post orders and shift schedules, camera placement and whether the cameras were actually recording, and the condition of gates, locks, key-card systems, and lighting.
It can be, in the right circumstances. Hotels and resorts have a special relationship with their guests. That relationship comes with duties that do not apply to a casual visitor on open land. It usually comes down to two questions. Was this kind of incident foreseeable at this property? And would reasonable measures have prevented or reduced the harm?
Resorts fight these cases hard, because a loss affects more than one guest. Expect them to start defending early, with plenty of resources. Expect them to be slow to hand over their security records.
Often several parties at once, and they will point at each other. The association may be responsible for the common elements, the managing agent for inspection and repair, an individual unit owner for what is inside the unit, a landlord for what they retained control over, and a contractor for the work they performed. Each usually carries separate insurance.
A big part of the early work is figuring out who controlled the thing that hurt you. That has to happen before the limitation period runs out.
Past and future medical expenses, lost wages and lost earning capacity, the cost of care and assistance you now need, and general damages for pain, disability, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. If the conduct was especially bad, other kinds of damages may apply.
There is no formula. Two people with the same fracture can have very different cases. It depends on how clear the fault is, how permanent the injury turns out to be, and how the whole case would look to a jury.
Be careful. An early offer usually comes before anyone knows whether you will fully recover. And a release is final. If the injury turns out to need surgery six months later, the release does not reopen.
A quick offer can also tell you something. It often means the adjuster has seen something in the file they would rather you did not look into.
Most do not. They settle in mediation or through direct negotiation. But the settlement amount is based on a guess about trial. The adjuster and the defense lawyers are estimating what a jury in that courthouse would do, with those witnesses and your lawyer asking the questions.
So Segal Law prepares these cases for trial. We send preservation letters early and inspect and measure the property. We subpoena the defendant’s own records instead of accepting a summary. We line up treating physicians and experts, and we take depositions as if the transcript will be read aloud in court. If the case settles, it settles on a record that would have held up at trial. If it does not settle, it is ready.
What to Do After an Injury on Someone Else’s Property
- 01
Report it, and get the report number
Tell management or security before you leave, and ask for the incident report number. A report made that day is much harder to dispute than a description given weeks later.
- 02
Photograph the hazard as well as the injury
Take pictures of the spill, the broken step, the missing railing, the burnt-out light or the missing warning cone. Shoot from several distances, with something in the frame for scale. The hazard will be repaired within days.
- 03
Get the names
Get the names of employees who responded and anyone who saw it happen. Staff at resorts and stores change often. Without a name, a witness usually cannot be found later.
- 04
Get medical attention and be complete about it
If there are gaps in your treatment, the defense will argue you were not really hurt. Tell every provider about every symptom, including the ones that seem minor.
- 05
Send a preservation demand before the video is gone
Security cameras record over old video, often within weeks. If this step is missed, it usually cannot be undone.
Contact Segal Law About a Premises Injury
Segal Law is in Wailuku and handles premises cases throughout the State of Hawaiʻi. That includes resort and hotel properties, retail and restaurant premises, condominiums and rentals, and public property. Call 808-865-2100 or use our online form.
This page is general information about Hawaiʻi premises liability and is not legal advice about your situation. Deadlines apply, and claims involving public property carry a much shorter notice requirement than private ones. Call 808-865-2100 or contact us online for a consultation.
Talk to a lawyer who has worked as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney.
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