Slipped on shuffleboard wax

What is the name of your state? Minnesota

I was playing a tabletop shuffleboard game with some friends at a local bar/restaurant earlier this month. The game uses grains of wax to help the pieces slide and apparently some had been spilled on the floor before we arrived because as I walked from one end of the table to the other, my foot slipped out from under me and I broke my leg. The table sits on a hardwood floor and there is no carpet around it to catch wax that might fall off the table or any warning that the floor might be slippery. I have a number of witnesses who can testify that I was not intoxicated or behaving inappropriately. The owner and several employees of the establishment also witnessed the accident. As a result of the fall, I required surgery and will need physical therapy to recover function in my leg. I had recently changed jobs so my health insurance will not cover the expenses related to this injury, which are approaching $10,000. I have spoken with a lawyer regarding this incident, but he indicated that the establishment's insurance company will probably only have a "Med Pay" clause that would apply which would range from $2-5k. I am not looking to get rich, but I don't want to have to go bankrupt, either. Can anyone give me some ideas about how to get the insurance company to pay for all of the medical expenses and perhaps some of the time I missed work because of the injury?
Thank you!

"apparently some had been spilled on the floor before we arrived because as I walked from one end of the table to the other, my foot slipped out from under me and I broke my leg."

What proof do you have that the slip was caused by the wax pellets? Not just your assumptions, but actual proof.

Has the bar provided you with their insurance company information? If yes, make a claim against the carrier.

stephenk said:

"apparently some had been spilled on the floor before we arrived because as I walked from one end of the table to the other, my foot slipped out from under me and I broke my leg."

What proof do you have that the slip was caused by the wax pellets? Not just your assumptions, but actual proof.

Has the bar provided you with their insurance company information? If yes, make a claim against the carrier.

Click to expand...

My response:

Stephen, wax is slippery by it's nature; i.e., that's why it's used for the shuffleboard. What we have here is Res Ipsa Loquitur.

A plaintiff who can prove the essential elements of res ipsa loquitur (injury-producing instrumentality was in defendant's exclusive control and injury would not have occurred had due care been exercised, may be able to shift the burden of proof to defendant. Where an accident is of such a nature that, in light of past experience, it probably was the result of someone's negligence and defendant is probably the one responsible, the law permits the trier of fact to draw an inference of defendant's negligence. This is the doctrine of "res ipsa loquitur," shifting the burden to defendant to produce evidence either that he or she was not negligent or that any negligence on his or her part was not a proximate cause of the occurrence.

"The particular force and justice of [res ipsa loquitur] . . . consists in the circumstance that the chief evidence of the true cause, whether culpable or innocent, is practically accessible to . . . [defendant(s)] but inaccessible to the injured person . . . [W]ithout the doctrine the maxim that for every wrong there is a remedy would be rendered nugatory, 'by denying one, patently entitled to damages, satisfaction merely because he is ignorant of facts peculiarly within the knowledge of the party who should, in all justice, pay them'." [Ybarra v. Spangard 25 Cal.2d at 490]

Plaintiffs seeking to invoke res ipsa loquitur have the burden of establishing the following three conditions:
• That the accident is of a kind which ordinarily does not occur in the absence of someone's negligence;
• That the accident was caused by an agency or instrumentality within the defendant's (or defendants') exclusive control; and
• That the accident was not due to any voluntary action or contribution on plaintiff's part. [Newing v. Cheatham (1975) 15 Cal.3d 351]


IAAL