Can I Sue if I Get Stuck in an Elevator?

You may be able to recover damages for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering resulting from the incident. In some cases, courts may also award compensation for emotional distress or even punitive damages if the negligence was especially reckless.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled more than 100,000 residential elevators from 2021 to 2022. While it may be reassuring to know the government acted before more people were hurt, many people still fall victim to elevator injuries.

Most personal injury attorneys can handle elevator injuries. But to build the strongest case, it’s better to consult a lawyer with experience in premises liability law.

Inconvenienced vs. Injured

The first thing to consider is whether you suffered serious harm. This question is helpful if you’re weighing your legal options. 

It’s not enough that you suffer an inconvenience from getting momentarily stuck in an elevator. Something went wrong, and you lost some time in the process. Yet, you would not have suffered substantial harm in that scenario.

But you can take legal action for being stuck if you reasonably suffered from a physical injury or emotional distress. These issues usually means there was a serious elevator malfunction.

Types of Elevator Injury Claims

An elevator malfunction may not be enough reason to sue on its own, but injuries can create a legal basis for a claim due to negligence.

This type of case may be easier to understand with an example.

Alex is out and about on their shopping day. In between visiting different stores, Alex goes up and down stairs and steps onto all kinds of escalators. As a normal part of life, Alex also has to step into elevators from time to time, whether it’s to get to their apartment or to reach the top floor of their favorite department store.

Alex’s favorite mall is only accessible through an elevator. As the elevator doors open, Alex steps in and presses the button to get onto the next floor. Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned. As the doors close, the elevator jolts up and down. Alex frantically presses the emergency button, but nothing seems to be working.

Onlookers hear Alex’s scream through the elevator shaft, and they call the fire department.

By the time rescue arrives, Alex has suffered serious injuries, including:

• Emotional distress from claustrophobia — Alex was stuck in there for an hour, and the cramped elevator space gave Alex a complete mental breakdown.
• Broken bones, back injuries, and head injuries, including a brain injury — Alex’s entire body was forcefully thrown up and down because the elevator motor had malfunctioned and put Alex into freefall.

Alex will claim all of these injuries — physical and mental — in a negligence lawsuit for premises liability. If Alex dies from these injuries, Alex’s representative may bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the negligent parties.

Suing for Negligence

Depending on the facts of the case, you can name several potential defendants in a negligence case, which could include:

• The property owner or landlord
• The lessee(s) of the building
• The elevator manufacturing company
• The elevator maintenance company

How To Prove Negligence

To prove negligence in the example above, Alex must show that one or more of these people was careless in the way they made or maintained the elevator.

In other words, Alex must prove the legal elements of duty, breach, causation, and damages:

• The defendants had a duty to ensure Alex’s safety because Alex was a customer or an expected user of their elevator.
• The defendants breached their duty by failing to maintain the elevator.
• The defendants’ failure to maintain the elevator caused Alex to suffer injuries from a malfunctioning elevator.
• Alex suffered damages in the form of physical, mental, and financial injuries.

In premises liability cases like this one, defendants must take reasonable steps to make a condition safe or warn the plaintiff of a dangerous condition. Here, one or more of the parties responsible for the elevator didn’t do their job right, and Alex got injured. That’s negligence in a nutshell.

Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress

Some states will allow a plaintiff to tack on a negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED) claim to their general negligence lawsuit. This will require a further showing that:

• The defendant’s negligence caused plaintiff’s emotional distress.
• The plaintiff actually suffered emotional harm.

Since the elevator mishap triggered Alex’s claustrophobia, Alex will want to include NIED in the lawsuit in states that allow it. Keep in mind that courts don’t always like to reward plaintiffs for emotional or mental problems unless the emotional distress was accompanied by some kind of physical injury.

Suing for Wrongful Death

Elevator accidents can be fatal. If Alex dies from the serious injuries listed above, Alex’s representative may be able to sue the same defendants for wrongful death.

While the elements vary across different states, a wrongful death claim generally involves each of the following components:

• The immediate family or personal representative of the deceased brings the lawsuit.
• The defendant must have been negligent in properly maintaining the elevator.
• Defendant’s negligence must have caused the victim’s death.
• The victim and their family were damaged because of the victim’s loss of life and associated hospital and burial expenses.

Remedies: What Accident Victims Can Recover

After winning a lawsuit for negligence or wrongful death related to an elevator accident, victims and their families can receive compensation for the following damages:

• Physical and mental/emotional pain and suffering (non-economic damages)
• Medical bills, including future possible care needed
• Loss of earnings to date and future earning capacity
• Lawsuit costs and attorney’s fees
• Burial/funeral costs and loss of consortium (companionship) in a wrongful death case
• Punitive damages (sometimes awarded by courts to punish defendants who acted outrageously and showed reckless disregard for their victims)

Get Legal Advice From an Elevator Accident Attorney

If you were the victim of elevator accident injuries, you have legal rights. A premises liability lawyer can provide you with a case evaluation and help you decide if you should file an elevator accident lawsuit. If you’re not sure whether you have a good case, they can give you all the disclaimers and provide you with different options for your accident claim.

If you think you may have a valid elevator injury case, your first step should be to consult an expert attorney. Some law offices that handle personal injury claims take cases on a contingency basis, meaning you won’t have to pay upfront until a settlement or judgment has been obtained for you.