Spider Bites And Premises Liability

If your only experience with premises liability law comes from seeing billboards of personal injury law firms, you might assume that the circumstances that lead to spider bites and the circumstances that lead to premises liability lawsuits are mutually exclusive.  You might think that premises liability lawsuits only occur when a customer slips and falls on a wet floor at a supermarket.  Meanwhile, spider bites happen when you are outdoors, hiking or camping on public lands where the Recreational Land Use Statute prevents you from suing for premises liability.  In fact, spider bites can happen indoors, too, and premises liability laws protect all customers and licensees, meaning people other than employees who went to the place of business for work purposes, in the event of preventable accidents, including but not limited to animal bites, that happen at the place of business.  Therefore, if a rat, spider, or snake bites you at a place of business, it is the business owner’s responsibility for failing to remove the animal before it could bite.  A Columbia premises liability lawyer can help you get the  money you need to cover the medical bills arising from a preventable animal attack that occurred on someone else’s property.

Woman Sues Dollar General After Spider Bite That Led to Amputation of Part of Her Foot

Elizabeth Cannon works at a tax preparation office in a strip mall; in such an occupation, open-toed shoes are appropriate work attire.  Next door to her office is a Dollar General store.  On many occasions before her injury, Cannon complained about Dollar General leaving trash, including food scraps, in the common area behind the two commercial spaces.  The trash attracted pests, including rodents and the various insects that make up the diet of the brown recluse spider.  One day in November 2020, Cannon and her coworkers were removing the trash and taking it to the dumpsters, as they had done on several prior occasions, when a brown recluse spider bit Cannon on the big toe of her left foot.  The venom from brown recluse spider bites can cause necrosis of the affected area.

The pain from the spider bite worsened, and Cannon went to the emergency room several days later, where the doctors prescribed antibiotics for an infected spider bite.  The pain only got worse after that, and eventually she had to have several surgeries to amputate her big toe and part of her left foot.  In November 2023, Cannon sued Dollar General and the two commercial real estate companies that own and manage the strip mall where her workplace is located.  She is seeking economic damages for medical expenses and lost income, as well as non-economic damages for pain and suffering.

Let Us Help You Today

The premises liability lawyers at the Stanley Law Group can help you if you got injured in an animal bite injury at a place of business where you were a customer or licensee.  Contact The Stanley Law Group in Columbia, South Carolina or call (803)799-4700 for a free initial consultation.

Sources:

drive.google.com/file/d/1I1EczJiDoMxj41uYH4I1BBqrnY8LgdZB/view

law.com/dailyreportonline/2023/11/14/woman-sues-dollar-general-claiming-lost-toe-due-to-spider-bite-at-store/