Beijing Man Injured on Way to Coffee Shop Sues Café After Hospitalization

The Unbelievable Lawsuit: Man Falls on His Way to a Coffee Shop and Wins Compensation from the Property Management

After slipping and falling on his way to a coffee shop, the injured man sued three parties at once: the property rights holder, the property management company, and the very coffee shop he was headed to. His argument? All three had failed in their duty to ensure public safety, and together they should cover 80% of his damages...

But can a property developer, a property management company, and a coffee shop really be held liable for one man's stumble? And how much can he actually claim...

What Happened

One dark evening, Mr. Zhang arranged to meet friends at a coffee shop to discuss some business. Following the route his phone navigation laid out, he walked there on foot. The path, however, had no lighting and no safety warning signs, and as he came down a flight of steps he missed his footing and fell, injuring himself badly enough to spend several days in the hospital. The steps weren't clearly marked as stairs, and he hadn't recognized them as such.

Mr. Zhang concluded that the developer, the property management company, and the coffee shop had all failed to fulfill their safety obligations in a public space, and that each bore some responsibility for his fall. So he took all three to court...

Needless to say, none of the defendants saw this coming. In court, the developer, the property management company, and the coffee shop all disputed his claims.

The developer argued that management of the area where the incident occurred had been entrusted to the property management company, so the demand for compensation from them had no legal basis. The coffee shop pointed out that the accident happened in a public area outside its premises and that it was not the manager of that area, so it could not be held liable either.

The property management company, for its part, claimed it had fulfilled its duties, carrying out routine security and fire safety inspections across the areas under its care. It noted that the stairs where Mr. Zhang fell formed part of an emergency evacuation route and safety exit, which regulations require to remain unobstructed — they cannot be occupied, blocked, or closed off. The company also pointed to surveillance footage showing that Mr. Zhang missed his step because he was looking down at his phone and not watching where he was going. In other words, he himself was partly at fault, and the company rejected his claims.

The Unexpected Verdict

At this point you might be thinking: "He clearly wasn't watching where he was going. Who else is to blame?" And yet, remarkably, he actually won the case.

After hearing the evidence, the court ruled that as the manager of the area where the accident occurred, the property management company bore the obligation to ensure public safety. A site inspection confirmed genuine safety hazards at the entrance of the area — hazards the company should have addressed with proper safety precautions. Because it had not fully discharged this duty, it was liable in tort.

That said, the blame did not fall entirely on the property management company. Mr. Zhang's distraction with his phone was the primary cause of the accident, so he too was at fault. Weighing the degree of fault on each side and the strength of the causal link, the court apportioned responsibility at 40% for the property management company and 60% for Mr. Zhang himself.

Mr. Zhang's hospitalization generated total expenses — medical fees, hospital meal subsidies, nursing fees, nutrition costs, lost wages, and transportation — of 186,000 yuan. In the end, the property management company was ordered to pay him just over 26,000 yuan covering those items...

Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.

Image source: Internet

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