If you have suffered a serious injury at a hotel fitness center or gym due to the negligence of the hotel or club owner, you may be eligible to seek compensation for your injuries, even if you signed a waiver accepting the risks of use of the facility.
Hotels and Fitness Centers Have a Duty of Care
With hundreds of miles of beaches, Puerto Rico is a very popular tourist area. The people who visit the island depend on the hotels and guest homes in which they stay to keep them and their belongings safe. The law also expects business owners to take reasonable measures to keep their property safe for their guests.
This means that facility owners must regularly inspect the gym for potential dangers and inspect the equipment for defects. But understand that if a danger is present that management did not know about, they may still be liable if the danger would have been revealed during an inspection. This means that an owner, manager, and even maintenance personnel could be held liable for injuries caused by a danger or defect that they knew about or should have known about.
Also, the manufacturer of the equipment, the retailers that sold the equipment, the fitness centers that made them available for use, and the trainers who teach guests how to use them may be liable for your injuries if you sustained injury due to manufacturing defects, defective design, faulty installation, improper maintenance or improper use.
Preventative Causes of Gym Accidents
Unfortunately, most of the injurious accidents that occur in fitness centers are preventable, and some of the most common causes of personal injury all have relatively simple remedies. Some of the most common preventable reasons for injuries include:
- Inadequate spacing – equipment must be adequately spaced to prevent unintentional injury.
- Unsanitary conditions – centers must regularly disinfect equipment and guest use facilities to avoid the spread of illness.
- Dangerous equipment – equipment might be considered dangerous if it is poorly maintained, has design flaws, or if it has broken or faulty parts, including the kill switch.
- Failure to warn of dangers or inadequate warnings and rules.
Elements of a Fitness Center Injury Lawsuit
To have a successful case, you must be able to prove certain elements that show the fitness center is responsible for the damages you sustained. This includes proving that:
- The facility owed you a duty of care to ensure there were no dangers or hazards and to warn of any that were present, and
- The facility breached that duty by not ensuring safety or by failing to warn hazards, and
- That breach of duty caused an injury or loss, and
- You sustained an injury that resulted in damages.
Be aware that Puerto Rico has a one-year time limit to file a claim for damages. This time limit is called the statute of limitations, and every state defines their own time limits. The clock starts ticking down at the moment of injury and will continue for exactly one year, after which time, you will be banned from filing a claim for the damages you sustained, forever.
We Can Help
If you or a member of your family suffered a serious injury in a gym or fitness center accident, you might have a right to seek redress for your injuries and resulting losses. Contact us today if you are seeking compensation for the injuries you sustained or the losses you suffered due to hotel fitness center accidents. We have been helping people harmed by the negligence of someone else for more than 20 years by ensuring they receive the maximum compensation available by law for the damages they sustained, and we will do the same for you. Contact us now to learn more.
