Premises Liability Injuries and What They Mean for a Claim
Falls produce a characteristic injury pattern that depends on how the person landed, and each type raises a different question in the claim that follows.
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How people land, and what breaks
A forward trip and a backward slip produce different injuries. Tripping pitches a person forward onto outstretched hands, producing wrist and forearm fractures and facial injury. Slipping drops them backward onto the hip, tailbone and the back of the head.
That distinction matters evidentially. The injury pattern corroborates the mechanism, and a mismatch between the account and the injuries is something an occupier will notice.
Wrist and forearm fractures
The distal radius fracture from breaking a fall is among the commonest injuries in premises claims. It is well documented by imaging so causation is rarely disputed.
What is contested is the future: whether hardware comes out, whether grip strength and range of motion return, and whether post-traumatic arthritis develops. For manual trades a wrist that does not fully recover can end the work.
Hip fractures, and why age changes everything
A hip fracture in an older adult is a serious injury with consequences well beyond the bone. Recovery is prolonged, independence is frequently lost, and the medical literature associates it with significant decline.
Occupiers routinely argue that an older claimant's fall was caused by frailty rather than the hazard. Texas takes claimants as it finds them, so vulnerability is not a defense, and aggravation of an existing condition is compensable.
Head injury, including without a strike
A backward fall onto a hard floor produces head impact directly. But a concussion can also result from the deceleration alone, without the head striking anything.
Normal early CT imaging does not rule out a brain injury. Persistent memory, concentration, mood or fatigue symptoms should be reported and recorded promptly, and family accounts of observed change carry real weight.
Back and spinal injury
Compression fractures from landing on the tailbone, and disc injury from the axial load. Both are contested more than any other category, because degenerative change appears on imaging in a large share of adults without symptoms.
The answer is the treating history rather than the scan: whether symptoms began after the fall and how they progressed. Aggravation of a pre-existing condition is compensable in Texas.
Shoulder injuries, which surface late
Rotator cuff tears from bracing or from the arm being wrenched are commonly missed initially, because the shoulder is painful and stiff after any fall and the tear is not visible on plain X-ray.
Where shoulder pain persists beyond the expected period, MRI is warranted. A tear diagnosed three months later is entirely consistent with the fall but needs the contemporaneous record of ongoing symptoms to establish it.
Summary
| Injury | Mechanism | Contested question |
|---|---|---|
| Distal radius fracture | Breaking a forward fall | Grip and range of motion recovery |
| Hip fracture | Backward slip, older adult | Frailty argued as the cause |
| Concussion | Impact or deceleration alone | Normal CT treated as exclusion |
| Compression fracture | Landing on the tailbone | Pre-existing bone density |
| Disc injury | Axial loading | Degeneration argued as the cause |
| Rotator cuff tear | Bracing or wrenching | Missed on initial imaging |
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Frequently asked questions
Wrist and forearm fractures from breaking a forward fall, hip and tailbone injuries from slipping backward, head injuries, disc and compression injuries to the spine, and rotator cuff tears that frequently surface weeks later.
No. Texas takes claimants as it finds them, so vulnerability is not a defense and aggravation of an existing condition is compensable. It is raised regularly in claims by older adults and it is answerable.
Rotator cuff tears are not visible on plain X-ray and every shoulder is painful and stiff after a fall, so they are commonly missed. Where pain persists beyond the expected period, MRI is warranted and a later diagnosis is consistent with the fall.
Yes. A concussion can result from deceleration alone. Normal early CT imaging does not rule one out, and persistent memory, concentration, mood or fatigue symptoms should be reported and recorded promptly.
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