Wet leaves on entryways, walkways, and driveways can create slick surfaces that can lead to a slip-and-fall, but accidents like this are usually covered under the property owner's insurance policy. Let's look at the basics of fault for an injury resulting from the accumulation of wet leaves, and explain why your best of course of action probably runs through your neighbor's homeowner's insurance carrier (not necessarily against your neighbor himself).
Under a legal concept called "premises liability," homeowners have a responsibility to take certain reasonable steps to ensure that visitors don't get hurt due to a dangerous condition on the property, but in some states this duty varies depending on the visitor's legal status. Is he or she a licensee, invitee, or trespasser?
Licensees are people who are on your property for their own purposes, with your express or implied permission. Social guests and solicitors are usually considered licensees. Invitees include contractors doing work on your house, or shoppers at your yard sale. A trespasser is someone who enters your property without your permission or authorization.
A homeowner's legal responsibility to trespassers is minimal compared to that owed to invitees or licensees. As a general rule, homeowners are not liable for injuries of trespassers and do not have to ensure the safety of trespassers on their property, unless the homeowner knows that trespassers often use the property, or unless the trespassers are children.
For licensees and invitees, a homeowner's "duty of care" usually means taking reasonable steps to inspect the property and remedy any hazards within a reasonable time. If there is a dangerous condition on the property that the homeowner knew (or reasonably should have known) about, then the homeowner may be liable if a licensee or invitee ends up getting hurt because of that condition.
Especially during the autumn and winter months, homeowners are often faced with the nature-made hazard of wet and slippery leaves, which create a slip-and-fall risk to pedestrians and anyone else on their property. It is the responsibility of the homeowner to keep sidewalks, walkways, entryways and other frequently-traveled areas reasonably free of wet and slippery leaves. Wet leaves can be as slippery as ice on sidewalks, especially on tile floors or entryways. What's reasonable? It depends on the circumstances, but in general a homeowner has a duty to clean up wet leaves within a sensible amount of time, once they have actual or constructive notice of the hazard, in order to avoid injury to others on the property. (Get more details on the rules regarding a similar property hazard: snow removal laws.)
To put this another way, if a homeowner has notice of the accumulation of wet leaves on the walkway leading to the front door, and fails to remedy the situation before the neighbor comes over for tea (or in your case, to hand off some mail), the homeowner will likely be considered negligent if the neighbor slips and falls on the leaves.
In this situation, although the homeowner could be held personally liable for the neighbor's injuries, most homeowners' insurance policies would cover the neighbor's medical bills, lost income, and other personal injury damages (up to policy limits, of course). Learn more about how insurance affects a slip and fall claim.
If you slip and fall on wet leaves, make note of everything you remember about the accident and the scene, and if possible, take photos of the scene and the hazard (the location and condition of the leaves). Take down the names and contact information of the property owner and any witnesses who saw what happened.
After the accident, get medical attention for any pain or discomfort you feel, so that your injuries can be treated and documented. Keep records of all medical treatment, medical bills and lost wages. All of this information will be essential to recovering any compensation from the homeowner's insurer.
Depending on the specifics of the accident and the nature of your injuries, you could try to deal with the insurance company on your own only to have them argue that you share some amount of fault for the accident (the presence of the leaves should have been obvious to you, for example) or that your injuries were pre-existing and not really attributable to your slip and fall. In situations like this, it's best to put your case in the hands of an experienced personal injury attorney.
