According to Florida law, a key factor in premises liability in Florida is the failure of a person in actual possession and control of a property—whether they are the owner, an agent, a lessee, a construction contractor, or any other possessor with authority—to use due care. This includes the responsibility to either warn or exclude licensees and invitees from areas that are known to the possessor to be dangerous due to operations, activities, or conditions present on the property:
The crux of a cause of action for premises liability is not the ownership of the premises, but the failure of the possessor of the premises to use due care (negligence) in permitting licensees and invitees to come, unwarned, to an area where, foreseeably, they may be injured by a dangerous condition which to them is not readily apparent.
Id. at 663 (emphasis added) (footnotes omitted); see also Metsker v. Carefree/Scott Fetzer Co., 90 So. 3d 973, 977 (Fla. 2d DCA 2012) (noting that in premises liability cases, “the issue of whether a party has a duty of care does not depend on ownership” but rather on “whether the party has the ability to exercise control over the premises”).
[T]he determining factor … is the failure of a person who is in actual possession and control (be it the owner, an agent, a lessee, a construction contractor, or other possessor with authority or control) to use due care to warn or to exclude licensees and invitees from areas known to the possessor to be dangerous because of operations, activities, or conditions.
See: Ruiz v. Wendy’s Trucking, LLC, 357 So. 3d 292
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- Florida Slip and Fall Law (2024 Guide)
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