Santa Sues

It’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. That’s exactly what happened on Christmas Eve. Dear old Santa was injured when he stopped by the Ebenezer Scrooge Florida residence to make a delivery.

Santa got medical treatment at the North Pole Hospital, his reindeer were treated by the North Pole veterinarian and damage to his sled was repaired by Santa’s elves.

Santa watched a lot of television while he was recovering and with that, a lot of lawyer advertisements. Santa was pretty upset. Scrooge wasn’t even going to get a present… just a lump of coal to hopefully get him to start being nice. The roof was in terrible condition, the chimney almost shut with soot, and the fireplace a mess. It was Scrooge’s fault Santa got hurt, and as Santa got angrier, he wanted more than to just deliver a lump of coal.

Santa hired a lawyer and suit was filed. Santa sued for personal injury, loss of enjoyment of life, plus pain and suffering. Santa wanted to sue for damage to his sleigh and reindeer, but the lawyer explained Santa didn’t have good claims for those aspects because Santa did not have to pay anything to fix the sleigh or reindeer. It was all done for free at the North Pole.

Santa had the same problem with his personal injury. He got free medical treatment. Under Florida law, medical damages recoverable for personal injury are limited to the medical expenses actually paid by the injured party or the injured party’s insurance.

When an insurance company pays medical bills, it usually pays a pre-negotiated and substantial discounted amount, which means the medical expense damages claimed by the injured person are a lot lower than the unadjusted medical bills. Worse for Santa, if an injured person does not have to repay the insurance company from any recovery in a lawsuit, the injured person cannot recover anything for medical expense damages. Since Santa had no medical expenses, he couldn’t sue for them.

Santa remembered some of the lawyer ads he saw on television and thought he should make a claim for the time he was unable to work. Even though Santa’s big job is delivering gifts on Christmas Eve, he works year-round with the elves in Santa’s workshop. He couldn’t work for months.

The lawyer explained Santa didn’t have much of a claim for being unable to work because Santa had no lost wages. Santa works for free. He did not lose any past or future wages. He could not sue for wages he did not lose.

If Santa had to hire somebody to do his job while he was hurt now or in the future, those costs might be recoverable. Santa explained he wasn’t hurt so badly that he could never work again. The medical treatment at the North Pole was so good he would not have any problems in the future. Santa wouldn’t have to hire a replacement.

Santa still had claims for pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. The lawyer made it sound even better, as the lawyer-filed papers not only claimed that Santa was hurt by the condition of Scrooge’s property, but that Scrooge had intentionally laid a trap for Santa to be injured.

Santa was surprised to hear that Scrooge had a defense. Scrooge argued that Santa was never welcome. And, because Scrooge had not been nice, Scrooge did not anticipate Santa would visit his home. Santa was not invited and Scrooge would not have let him in.

Santa’s lawyer countered with the argument that Santa was an invitee or at worst, a social guest. The difference, he explained to the jury, was important.

An invitee is someone who the property owner invites or expects to visit. A property owner owes an invitee the highest duty of care. That means the property owner must keep the property in reasonably safe condition, take steps to look for any hidden or latent defects and fix them and warn visitors of dangerous conditions. Santa’s lawyer argued that the shaky roof, bad chimney and the condition of the fireplace were all defects that Scrooge should have fixed or warned about.

Scrooge’s lawyer argued that Santa was a trespasser. A property owner has virtually no duty to a trespasser. A trespasser is a person who was not expected and not invited. Scrooge knew he was rotten and that meant Santa would not visit. Nobody else would be on Scrooge’s roof, chimney, or fireplace.

A property owner does not have a duty to make property safe for trespassers or to warn trespassers of any dangerous condition. Scrooge’s lawyer argued that meant Santa had no business being at the Scrooge residence and further that Santa assumed the risk of being there.

In rebuttal, Santa’s lawyer got Santa to explain that this was not the first time Santa had visited Scrooge. Santa admitted he had not been in Scrooge’s home often but remembered visiting annually when Scrooge was a child. That meant if Santa was a trespasser, Scrooge had to warn Santa of any dangers that were not open and obvious. The lawyer argued that even if the defective roof was open and obvious, the chimney and fireplace were not.

Scrooge’s lawyer made another argument. He argued that under Florida law, if Santa’s negligence was at least 50% of why he was hurt, Santa could not recover anything. The law used to be that an injured person’s recovery was just reduced by the percentage causation attributable to the person’s own negligence. That changed in 2023. If the jury decided that Santa’s own negligence was at least 50% of the reason he was hurt, Santa would not get a cent.

Just before the jury came back with a verdict, the lawyers announced that Scrooge and Santa reached a settlement and the case was finished.