Slip-and-Fall Accidents in Massachusetts and the Liability for Property Owners

According to an article from The Standard: New England’s Insurance Weekly (August 6, 2010), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed the longstanding “natural accumulation” rule regarding slip-and-fall accidents on snow and ice, ushering in a new field of liability for property owners.

So what exactly is “natural accumulation”, which has also become known as the “Massachusetts rule”? In simple terms, before the reversal, this meant that snow or ice that had fallen, from a plowed snow pile or from a median in a plowed parking lot for example, that had “naturally accumulated” does not leave the property owner at fault if someone slips or falls on these areas. The existing case law stated that the property owner was not violating the duty of reasonable care by failing to remove the natural accumulation of snow and ice.

Click here to read more of this post from our Massachusetts and Insurance News blog.