Legal Question in Personal Injury in Hawaii
Liability of building owner during fire drills
What liability does a building owner have if a tenant, who is required by the owner to physically evacuate a building during a fire drill, suffers a fatal heart attack doing the unexpected and unnecessary (no emergency) physical stress, such as walking down 20 flights of stairs in a set amount of time? Is this liability, if any, any different if there is an actual emergency?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Liability of building owner during fire drills
Building owners generally have an obligation to have periodic fire drills to ensure that their tenants are familiar with the procedures in case of an actual emergency. Liability would depend upon a number of factors such as whether the victim was predisposed to a heart attack due to his/her physical condition, ie. heart attack would have occurred given the preexisting condition, despite the drill. Other factors would include how the drill was conducted and whether the victim knew this was just a drill. In an actual emergency, I do not think there could be any liability given that one has to evacuate the building during an actual fire or given emergency.
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