Multiple Defendants in a Los Angeles Slip and Fall: Who Pays?

By Payam Soliemanzadeh, Founder and President

Key takeaways

• Liability follows control: who owned, occupied, managed, cleaned, or repaired the area where you fell.
• Economic damages are joint and several; non-economic damages are divided by each defendant's percentage of fault.
• Naming every responsible party matters, because an uninsured or missing defendant's share of non-economic damages may be uncollectible.
• A settlement with one defendant is generally credited against what the others owe for economic damages.

Commercial property in Los Angeles is rarely run by one party. A shopping center may be owned by an investment company, managed by a property management firm, leased to a restaurant, cleaned by a janitorial contractor, and patrolled by a security company. An apartment building in Koreatown or North Hollywood may have an absentee owner, an on-site manager, and outside repair vendors. When someone falls, each of them may point at the others. This guide explains how California decides who is responsible and how damages are divided.

The rule: responsibility follows control

California's duty of care comes from Civil Code § 1714: everyone is responsible for injuries caused by a failure to use ordinary care in managing their property. In premises cases, the key question is who owned, possessed, or controlled the area where the fall happened, and who had the responsibility and ability to fix the hazard or warn about it. Ownership alone is not always decisive, and more than one party can share control of the same space.

Owners and landlords

An owner who occupies the property is responsible for its condition. When the owner leases the property out, the analysis changes. A landlord who has handed possession to a tenant is generally liable for a dangerous condition on the leased space if the landlord knew about it and had the right and ability to correct it — for example, through a lease that reserves repair rights. California courts have also held that a commercial landlord has a duty to inspect the premises for dangerous conditions when the lease is signed or renewed.

Landlords almost always keep control of common areas — lobbies, stairwells, walkways, parking lots, and pool decks — and are responsible for keeping them reasonably safe. In residential buildings, habitability rules (Civil Code § 1941.1) and Los Angeles Housing Department inspection records can show whether the owner knew about broken stairs, missing handrails, or failed lighting. Our West Covina landlord-and-tenant guide walks through a guest's claim in detail.

Commercial tenants

The business that occupies the space — the grocery store, restaurant, gym, or retail shop — is usually responsible for conditions inside it, such as spills, merchandise in aisles, and wet floors. Tenants may also be responsible for areas their lease assigns to them, like the sidewalk in front of the entrance or an outdoor dining patio. Many commercial leases in Los Angeles shopping centers split these duties, so the lease itself often becomes important evidence.

Property managers, cleaning crews, and maintenance contractors

A property management company can be liable for its own negligence — for example, ignoring tenant repair requests or failing to schedule inspections it agreed to perform. A janitorial company that leaves a floor wet without warning signs, or a contractor that leaves a trip hazard after a repair, can be liable for the hazard it created. The owner or tenant that hired them may also remain responsible, because California courts have treated some safety duties as ones a property owner cannot simply hand off to someone else.

Security companies, landscaping vendors, and elevator or escalator maintenance firms can be defendants too, depending on what caused the fall.

How Proposition 51 divides damages

California voters passed Proposition 51 in 1986. It is codified at Civil Code § 1431.2 and splits damages into two categories:

• Economic damages — medical bills, future medical care, lost wages, and other measurable financial losses — are joint and several. Each defendant found at fault can be required to pay the full amount, and the defendants sort out their shares among themselves.
• Non-economic damages — pain, suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life — are several only. Each defendant pays only its own percentage of fault.

A hypothetical example: A jury awards $80,000 in economic damages and $120,000 in non-economic damages. It finds the property owner 60% at fault and an uninsured cleaning contractor 40% at fault. The owner can be required to pay all $80,000 of economic damages, but only $72,000 (60%) of the non-economic damages. The contractor's $48,000 share of non-economic damages is recoverable only from the contractor. If it has no insurance or assets, that amount may never be collected. (This example is for illustration only and does not reflect any actual case.)

If you were also partly at fault, California's pure comparative negligence rule reduces the total by your percentage first. See our guide on comparative fault.

Why identifying every defendant early matters

Because each defendant pays only its own share of non-economic damages, leaving a responsible party out of the case can reduce what you actually collect. Defendants may also try to blame someone who is not in the case, and a jury can assign fault to that absent party. Investigating early — pulling property records from the Los Angeles County Assessor, requesting the lease and service contracts in discovery, and identifying the cleaning and maintenance vendors — helps make sure the right parties are named before the two-year deadline passes.

When a public agency is one of the parties, such as a City sidewalk in front of a store, the six-month claim deadline applies to the agency even though the private defendants have two years. See our public property guide.

When one defendant settles before trial, California law generally credits that settlement against what the remaining defendants owe for economic damages (Code of Civil Procedure § 877), and a court can confirm the settlement was made in good faith (Code of Civil Procedure § 877.6).

Local details for Los Angeles

• County: Los Angeles County
• Where a case is filed: A multi-defendant premises case is generally filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, where new personal-injury cases are generally heard in the courthouse for the district where the incident happened — Stanley Mosk Courthouse downtown for Central District cases, or district courthouses such as Van Nuys.
• Key deadline: Generally 2 years from the fall against private defendants (Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1); 6 months to present a claim against any public entity (Gov. Code § 911.2).

Los Angeles has a large share of renters and a large number of multi-tenant commercial properties, from strip malls on Sherman Way to mixed-use buildings downtown. In the City of Los Angeles, the Housing Department's Systematic Code Enforcement Program periodically inspects rental units and common areas in buildings with two or more units, and those inspection records and citations can help show that an owner knew about a hazard. The Los Angeles County Assessor's records identify the owner of record, which is often a separate company from the manager whose name is on the building sign.

Frequently asked questions

If I fell in a store inside a shopping center, who is responsible — the store or the mall?

It depends on where you fell and who controlled that area. The store is usually responsible for conditions inside its space; the center's owner or manager usually controls parking lots, walkways, and common areas. Both can be responsible in some cases.

Can I sue my landlord if I fell on a broken stair in my apartment building?

Often yes, if the stairway is a common area the landlord controls and the landlord knew or should have known about the problem. Repair requests and inspection records are important evidence.

What if the cleaning company caused the wet floor?

The cleaning company can be liable for the hazard it created, and the business that hired it may be responsible as well. Both should typically be named.

What does Prop 51 mean for my case?

Each at-fault defendant can be required to pay all of your economic damages, but only its own percentage of your non-economic damages. That makes it important to identify every responsible party.

Related reading

• Slip & Fall Accident Attorney in California
• How to prove the owner knew about the hazard
• Proving negligence in a Los Angeles slip and fall case

This article is attorney advertising and provides general information only — it is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. For advice about your situation, speak with a licensed attorney.