Slip in fall in local establishment ..down a flight of stairs

It sounds like there may be a defective and dangerous latent condition which could be actionable. You should consult with an experienced NY personal injury attorney ASAP to best preserve any claim that there may be.

I don't see a question here, but if you are inquiring as to whether you can bring a claim on your son's behalf (or if he can bring a claim himself, if he is over 18) the answer is YES. In order to be successful, however, you must prove 2 things: 1. Liability, meaning that they are at fault/responsible for what happened; and 2. Damages, meaning the extent and lasting nature of the injuries suffered by your son. Obviously we can not be sure about #2, but with respect to #1 (liability) it sounds as though you have a decent argument that they were on notice of the slippery and wet condition of the stairs where your son slipped given the prior fall. Given that, it is certainly something worth looking into. I suggest that you contact a local personal injury attorney to further discuss. Act quickly because your attorney should be sending out notices to preserve any documents relating to that prior fall as well as any video footage of the fall, which may exist. Good luck!

It certainly sounds like your son may have an actionable claim against the store. You should call an personal injury attorney.

Hopefully, you son is fine. That said, there may be reason to pursue a personal injury claim on his behalf. Contact qualified counsel asap. Good luck.

Slip and fall cases require that you show that the store knew of the condition or should have known of the condition. If they were aware of the prior fall before your son fell, you would meet this condition.

The statement by the maintenance staff worker is not going to be admissible because he likely does not have speaking authority for the owner. In order to have a case you need to show that there was a defective or dangerous condition and that the owner had actual or constructive notice of it. 5 minutes is not going to establish constructive notice. Did you see anything wrong with the stairs? This case may need an expert to inspect the stairs before they are repaired. The problem is that many lawyers may not want to invest thousands of dollars up front if your son does not have a definitive and significant diagnosis/injury warranting spending that type of money.

The important issue, which can't be known by us at the moment, is whether the store had "notice" of a defective condition. "Notice of a defective condition" is more complicated than just knowing that another patron/customer fell in the same (if it was the same) location 5 minutes earlier. If the condition which caused the fall (you don't say what it was) was a foreign substance, like food, paper, a liquid, which could have been dropped/spilled by another customer or patron just before the first patron fell, that would probably not constitute notice for the purpose of supporting a liability suit. To constitute "notice of a defective condition" there has to be a "reasonable" amount of time between the first awareness of a condition and the injury causing event (your son's fall) for the store to have taken reasonable measures to correct the condition. There is no requirement for immediate or instantaneous corrective measures. On the other hand, if the stair was broken or defectively designed, installed or maintained, you might have a case. You should probably consult with a personal injury attorney who can help you develop the relevant facts and evidence.

Sounds like you are doing the right thing so far but without knowing the extent of injury it's hard to say what this case is worth. If you can track down the identiti of the first person to fall, it sounds like a good case for liability.

Your son's fall must be external to your son's actions. That is, something caused your son to fall. Stairs can be dangerous or defective in a few ways. It seems from your description that there was no foreign substance (liquid, debris) that remained for too long that should have been removed/cleaned up. It may be, inferring from your facts, that the stairs are defectively designed. That is, the specifications (dimensions, degrees of height of riser/step, etc). The steps need to be documented (photographed and measured) asap. This is hard to sustain and an expert is required to do this and render an opinion (and this costs money).

Take photos of the defect/dangerous condition, and have a local personal injury lawyer investigate. has a great "find a lawyer" tool to locate a local lawyer.