The Role of Weather Conditions in Maine Personal Injury Claims: Snow, Ice, and Liability Laws

Maine is known for its harsh winters with heavy snowfall, ice storms, and frigid temperatures. These hazardous weather conditions often lead to slip and fall injuries when property owners fail to properly maintain their sidewalks, parking lots, and pathways.

Under Maine law, property owners have a duty to exercise reasonable care in keeping their premises safe for visitors. When they breach this duty and negligently allow snow and ice hazards to exist, they can be held liable if someone gets injured.

Slip and Fall Liability

Generally, Maine adheres to traditional “premises liability” rules which require a property owner to make reasonable efforts to identify dangerous snow and ice conditions and remedy them. If a property owner fails to salt, shovel, or sand their parking lots, walkways, or stairs within a reasonable time and someone slips and falls due to this negligence, the owner may face legal liability for any resulting injuries and damages.

However, Maine courts have held that property owners are not expected to create absolutely hazard-free environments during Maine winters. As long as reasonable efforts are made to maintain safe conditions, property owners usually cannot be sued simply because residual snow, frost, or ice contributes to a slip and fall accident.

The key questions focus on whether the owner had actual or constructive notice of the specific hazard and whether they acted reasonably to address it. When in doubt, it is always worth to work with a reputed Maine personal injury lawyer.

Natural Accumulations vs. Unnatural and Dangerous Conditions

An important distinction in Maine premises liability law involves “natural” vs. “unnatural” accumulations of snow and ice. Property owners generally aren’t liable for slip and falls caused solely by natural buildup of snow, sleet, or freezing rain during a winter storm. But they can be sued if this natural accumulation led to an “unnatural and dangerous condition” which they failed to properly remedy.

For example, if foot traffic packs down snow into an uneven icy path, or if melted runoff refreezes into bumpy ice patches, courts may view this as an unnatural accumulation requiring remedial action by the property owner. Other scenarios like overflowing gutters that drip water onto walkways and freeze can also lead to liability if owners neglect reasonable maintenance duties.

So, while Maine does provide some protection for property owners regarding natural weather hazards, they aren’t immune from liability simply because initial snow or ice conditions resulted from a storm. They must still monitor premises and treat unnatural accumulations that develop through subsequent thawing, refreezing, or foot traffic patterns.

Contributory vs. Comparative Negligence

Historically, Maine followed traditional “contributory negligence” rules which completely barred a plaintiff’s recovery if their own negligence contributed to the accident even minimally. This harsh doctrine often produced unfair results, especially in winter slip and fall cases where nearly everyone bears some fault for venturing outdoors in snowy conditions.

However, since 1965 Maine has applied “comparative negligence” principles more favorable to injury victims. This means a plaintiff can still recover damages even if partially at fault, with their awarded compensation reduced by their own percentage of blame.

So, if a pedestrian failed to wear proper footwear when walking across an icy parking lot, for example, their partial negligence wouldn’t necessarily defeat their premises liability claim. Any settlement or award would simply be reduced based on their comparative fault.

Final Words

Maine premises liability rules do impose responsible snow, ice and weather hazard management duties on property owners as part of their general obligation. This will make them put reasonable efforts preventing dangerous conditions. Exact determinations depend heavily facts about the specific accumulation at issue and whether it resulted wholly from natural weather events outside the owner's control. But in general, allowing unnatural and hazardous snow and ice build-up to persist without treatment can often lead to successful injury claims against negligent property owners.