Slip, Trip and Fall Injuries in New Mexico

New Mexico does not divide visitors into invitees and licensees for slip-and-fall purposes: an owner or occupant owes a visitor the duty to use ordinary care to keep the premises safe for the visitor's use, and this duty applies whether or not a dangerous condition is obvious. The owner or occupant is treated as knowing of any condition that a reasonable inspection would have revealed, or that it or its employees caused. The injured visitor must show the owner failed to use ordinary care and that this caused the injury, with fault compared under New Mexico's comparative-fault rules.

Under the New Mexico Tort Claims Act, governmental immunity is waived for bodily injury or death caused by the negligence of public employees acting within the scope of their duties in the construction and later maintenance of any bridge, highway, street, alley, sidewalk or parking area. The waiver does not cover damages caused by a defect in plan or design, a failure to build or rebuild, or certain approved deviations from standard design practices. Claims are subject to the Act's 90-day notice requirement and damage caps. The statute read does not address liability of the owner of property next to a public sidewalk.

Anyone claiming damages from a city, county, school district or other local public body under the Tort Claims Act must present a written notice stating the time, place and circumstances of the injury within 90 days after the occurrence: to the mayor for a municipality, the superintendent for a school district, the county clerk for a county, or the administrative head of any other local public body (claims against the state go to the Risk Management Division). No suit may be maintained unless notice was given or the government had actual notice; time when the injured person was incapacitated (up to 90 days) is not counted, and wrongful-death notice may be given within six months. Liability is capped at $400,000 per person for general damages, $300,000 for medical expenses and $200,000 per property for real property damage, with $750,000 total per occurrence for property and general damages, and no punitive damages or pre-judgment interest. The same law covers state and local public bodies.

New Mexico uses comparative fault. By statute, in cases where comparative fault applies, liability is generally several: each defendant pays only the share of damages equal to its percentage of the total fault attributed to all persons, including plaintiffs and non-parties, with joint and several liability kept for intentional wrongdoers, vicarious liability, strict product liability and certain other situations.

Three years for an action for an injury to the person.