Broken leg I need help

Hello all,
I live in Oregon which is know for its rainy winters.
First a bit of background. I rent a townhouse (one out of 8) and I am also on section 8 due to disability and I have a service dog. One of the reasons I moved into this apartment is because there is a large common area to exercise my dog, being disabled I cant run and play with him. It was mostly grass when I moved in last October.
This winter the back common area has gotten very muddy and has leaves fallen from neighboring yards that no one rakes up. I was walking in a back area talking to a neighbor over the fence and when I turned to leave I slipped on a patch of wet leaves over mud and fell and broke my leg near the ankle in 3 places. The property manager is responsible for the upkeep of this area. I have asked him if they will be leveling the yard and either grassing it in or putting bark dust in there to make it safe. He told me at first the owners want to level it and make it nice. That was a year ago. All the grounds people do it mow the weeds back there.
So I notified my Property Manager I had fallen in that area and it was a muddy hazard and it needed to be cleaned up. He said the owners wanted to do that but they didnt have the money till summer. So until then I needed to be careful.
I am thinking of suing him for personal injury about this, he knows the area is bad but it's still a common area for the use of all the tenants. I asked him if he reported the accident to his insurance company and he said no you were playing with your dog and you fell its not our fault.

I was not running or playing with my dog just walking in the area. I don't run I am handicapped. Is he responsible for this or even half responsible?

[OHlandlord]

I have answered this on another web site. In my state you would have no case against anyone. My state law makes you responsible for your own actions when the hazard is obvious & is not man-made. Mud and leaves are a naturally occurring hazard, especially in October in a rainy climate area. It would be a known hazard for which you would be responsible to take due diligence, to take extra caution when travelling through the area. It would be common sense to expect fallen leaves and mud in a grassy area at that time of year in that climate. You could reasonably expect a slope with was not perfectly level. In this case, you should have the expectation that it was a hazard and that a fall might occur. If you continued on the area, despite the obvious and your reasonable expectations, you incur any responsibility for your own actions.

You would have to look up the statutes in your state's law on natural hazards and what responsibility any owner would have to prevent injuries because of them. Your fall was not because of anything the owner did or should have done. One can not expect that every grassy surface will be exactly level, that every leaf will be raked up (especially from a neighbor's tree), or that mud would be dried for the convenience of all tenants in any common area. I don't think it will be found that he has any liability in this.

Then why did you bother to answer here again? I posted the oregon laws on the other site. I came to other sites to get varied opinions on my post not a repeat of your opinion. Ty anyway.

[OHlandlord]

I reposted so that the readers on this site could see the laws of my state in regards to your query. When this matter comes to a close, please post the results on here as well so these readers can see what happened. Not all state laws are the same. While most state laws say the LL/owner has the responsibility to keep the common areas clean, this usually doesn't refer to a natural state of being. It generally refers to man-made items littering the areas.

Many, but not all, state judges believe a person should have some responsibility for their own actions. If entering into an area where it could be hazardous, the person should use common sense and extra caution in that area. A wet, grassy area covered in leaves after rainy weather could reasonably be expected to be slippery. An ordinary person could reasonably expect a grassy area to be uneven, muddy, or slippery after a rain. No ordinary person could expect any grassy area to be perfectly level or even. Leaves covering the grass would be easily visible and thus an obvious matter.

In your own words, "the back common area has gotten very muddy and has leaves fallen from neighboring yards that no one rakes up", yet you ventured forth into this area on your own. You did not have to make use of that section of the "large common area", the grounds surrounding the building. There were other areas of the large common areas you could have walked on. It was not required that you travel over that area. You chose to enter into the area.

After the fact you asked the property manager if they will be "leveling the yard" and informed him that "I had fallen in that area and it was a muddy hazard". So the PM was notified of the hazard AFTER the incident and had no prior knowledge that any section of the grounds could be hazardous. (Prior knowledge and failure to repair are usually important aspects of negligence. If no prior knowledge, how could an owner be expected to know to repair a problem? Thus, it is doubtful that it would be ruled as negligence.)

Additionally, you said the area "has leaves fallen from neighboring yards", so the fallen leaves were not from trees on the owner's property. Did the neighboring owner clean up his leaves? (In SOME states, it would be the tree owner's responsibility to clean up any fallen "debris" from his trees.) If this were to go to trial, these points would be raised, photos of the entire grounds would be presented showing all the areas available for use of tenants, and your disability could be discussed. If you are unable to run, you may have other mobility problems they would discuss. I only mention this because it could come into play in any trial.

The ADA does say that reasonable accomodations must be made for any disability. However, you have to request that these accomodations be made prior to their implementation. Have you ever brought up the fact that it may be unsafe for you to use these sections of the grounds or the sloped areas you mention on the other web site? Have you previously asked the PM or owner to do something with this area? Or have you made no request for accomodation?

Do not take this the wrong way. I am not trying to make a case against you. But I am explaining items that can be brought up in any court case that you bring. I am truely sorry that you were injured. I wish you a speedy recovery so you may continue living a long and healthy life. But I do not think a judge or jury would find against the owner in this case. You may want to try to settle for an out of court settlement with the owner's insurance company. They would probably offer you some money as compensation, if only to avoid the trial and time needed for a defense. I wish you good luck and safe journeys in the future.

Thank you for your input as I have a lawyer now I cant discuss this any further and what you posted did help me decide if it was worth going through.

[OHlandlord]

If others would like to see the hazardous area in question, she posted a link to the photo on another website.

http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/090.html

Nearly all posters who responded to her posts on the various websites each stated that they did not believe the LL was liable in any way for this injury. Hopefully she will repost later to see what has become of this law suit.

[randalljd]

Thanks!