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Louisiana's merchant fall statute treats a hotel as a merchant in areas like its "shops, restaurants, and lobby areas." It does not mention guest rooms. A fall in the lobby and a fall in your room can be judged under different rules, and the difference decides what you have to prove. We call it the lobby line.
Lafayette has more than 5,000 hotel rooms, and the Cajundome Convention Center has about 100,000 square feet of meeting space, according to the Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission. If you were hurt in one of those 5,000 rooms, you are probably checking out soon. The hotel holds the video. You do not.
Brandt & Sherman has more than 50 years of combined experience. We start with where you were standing.
The merchant fall statute covers a hotel's areas that are similar to a store's, "including but not limited to shops, restaurants, and lobby areas" (R.S. 9:2800.6). There, a guest must prove three things:
Miss one and the claim fails. Expect the hotel to fight hardest on notice.
Constructive notice has a defined meaning. If the hotel did not create the hazard and no one there knew of it, you must prove it was there long enough that the hotel would have found it with reasonable care. An employee standing nearby is not enough by itself, unless that employee knew or should have known of the hazard (R.S. 9:2800.6(C)(1)).
A second rule applies anywhere. Under Civil Code article 2317.1, an owner or custodian is liable for a defect only if three things are true. It knew or should have known of the defect. Reasonable care could have prevented the damage. It failed to use that care. The merchant statute leaves liability under article 2317 in place (R.S. 9:2800.6(D)). In a guest room, which the statute's list does not name, this general premises liability rule is likely to apply. That is the lobby line.
Whether a hotel owes you more than ordinary care is unsettled. Courts disagree. In 1982 the Louisiana Supreme Court likened a hotel to a common carrier and said a guest "is entitled to a high degree of care and protection" (Kraaz v. La Quinta Motor Inns, as quoted in a 2019 federal decision). Appeals courts have since split on whether that applies to slip and falls.
In 2019 a federal court in New Orleans ruled that, under Louisiana law, a hotel owes its guests a heightened duty of care while they are in their rooms (Phetteplace v. 415 Rue Dauphine, LLC, E.D. La. 2019). That ruling does not bind Louisiana's courts. Build a hotel case to win under the ordinary rules. Treat the higher duty as a bonus.
One guest lost at trial, then won.
A guest at L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles tripped in the corridor in front of the hotel's restaurant, breaking three ribs and tearing a rotator cuff that needed surgery. Her case went to a jury in the 14th Judicial District Court in Calcasieu Parish. The jury found for the hotel. In 2016 the Third Circuit Court of Appeal reversed, applied the merchant statute on its own review and entered judgment for her of $216,026.54. The Louisiana Supreme Court declined review (Sayre v. PNK (Lake Charles), LLC, La. App. 3 Cir. 2016).
Falls, pools, bad air and broken fixtures all turn on what the hotel knew or should have known. Wet-floor falls are slip and fall claims.
Federal law requires anti-entrapment drain covers or systems meeting the national standard in every public pool and spa. Hotel pools are not exempt. The law expressly covers a pool open only to hotel guests (15 U.S.C. 8003).
Across all U.S. pools and spas, an average of 357 drowning deaths of children younger than 15 were reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission each year. That covers 2020 through 2022. CPSC staff treat that as a minimum count. If a child was hurt, report it before checkout and see our child injury page.
A 2007 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine of carbon monoxide poisonings at hotels, motels and resorts from 1989 to 2004 found 68 incidents that poisoned 772 people, 711 of them guests, and killed 27. Faulty room heating caused 45 incidents. Pool and spa boilers caused 16.
Louisiana's carbon monoxide detector statute is written for one- and two-family homes (R.S. 40:1581). Hotels are not on the list. Whether a hotel needed a detector depends on the codes for its building.
A broken railing, balcony or ceiling is a defect in the building, which brings in the general rule. Photograph the break. If a chair or shower door gave way, the maker may share the blame under product liability law, and fire or scalding injuries are burn injury claims.
Guest attacks can raise negligent security claims. If you were sexually assaulted at a hotel, our hotel sexual assault page explains survivors' options.
A casino hotel owned by a tribe can move your injury claim out of Louisiana's courts and into the tribe's own court or claims process. Find out who owns it first.
Cypress Bayou Casino Hotel, at 832 Martin Luther King Road in Charenton, is a Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana enterprise. The Tribe's own code says:
The tort-claims rule speaks of the gaming premises, but the Tribe's immunity, the $500,000 cap and the Tribal Court's reach over its land are not limited to the casino floor. The Chitimacha code also gives its Tribal Court no jurisdiction over a case brought more than one year after the injury (Title IV, Sec. 701). That is half of Louisiana's two years. Call quickly.
Paragon Casino Resort, near Marksville, sits on the Tunica-Biloxi Reservation and is owned by the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe through its gaming authority. Its compact with Louisiana requires the Tribe to adopt procedures, with the State's agreement, for patrons' injury claims, and says the Tribe does not give up its immunity from suit for those claims. Call right away.
Its employees may be a different story. In 2015 the Third Circuit Court of Appeal held that tribal sovereign immunity did not bar a wrongful death suit against a Paragon Casino bartender and two security guards sued in their individual capacities. The plaintiff had not contested the casino's own dismissal on appeal (Zaunbrecher v. Succession of David, La. App. 3 Cir. 2015). The case did not end there. In 2018 the same court dismissed the claims against those employees on a different ground, Louisiana's law limiting liability for serving alcohol (Zaunbrecher v. Martin, La. App. 3 Cir. 2018). Tribal immunity was not the reason.
Before you check out, report the injury, photograph the spot and have a lawyer ask the hotel in writing to keep its video. Sayre shows how little evidence may survive.
About four minutes of the hotel's surveillance video were kept. The rest was deleted. That video did not show security staff taking photographs, inspecting the floor or taking statements at the scene. Yet the accident report said the floor had been inspected. It attached two photos of a floor, but no employee statements or witness names. Under the hotel's procedure, the guest got a business card, not a copy of the report.
The appeal turned on a jury instruction. The trial judge had refused to charge the jury on the adverse presumption, a rule that lets a jury presume that evidence a party controlled and failed to keep, without a reasonable explanation, would have hurt that party. The Third Circuit reversed.
A comped room is not a settlement. A release signed after you are hurt is not an advance waiver, so talk to a lawyer before you sign one. Our pain and suffering and medical bills page explains what pain and suffering covers, including mental anguish, and how it is proven.
A hotel's $500 limit applies only to belongings, under Civil Code article 2945. It covers stolen or damaged belongings not handed to the hotel, and only if the hotel offers a safe deposit facility and posts notice of it. It does not apply if the hotel agreed in writing to more. Louisiana also voids any clause that in advance excludes or limits a party's liability for causing physical injury (Civil Code art. 2004). That includes check-in forms.
For claims arising after July 1, 2024, you generally have two years from the injury to sue the hotel (Civil Code art. 3493.1, Act 423 of 2024). The clock starts when you are hurt. A claim in Chitimacha Tribal Court, which hears claims against Cypress Bayou, must be brought within one year (Title IV, Sec. 701). Other tribes can set their own rules for injury claims, so do not assume you have two years against any tribal casino. A family's wrongful death claim generally has one year from the death or two years from the injury, whichever is longer (Civil Code art. 2315.2).
The 51% rule is new. For causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, a person found 51% or more at fault recovers nothing, and a smaller share of fault cuts the award by that percentage (Civil Code art. 2323, as amended by Act 15 of 2025, effective January 1, 2026). For causes of action that arose before January 1, 2026, fault only reduces the award.
Expect the insurer to raise drinking. Or to call the hazard obvious. Under the 2026 rule, if the jury puts your share of fault at 51% or more, that argument wins the case. Our page on how Louisiana's injury laws changed in 2024 to 2026 explains which rule fits your dates.
Yes, if the hotel's fault caused it. In a guest room, the general rule in Civil Code article 2317.1 is likely to apply. The hotel is liable for a defect only if it knew or should have known of it, could have prevented the harm with reasonable care, and failed to. Whether hotels owe guests a higher duty is unsettled.
It can. Louisiana's merchant fall statute treats a hotel as a merchant in areas similar to a store, including its shops, restaurants and lobby areas (R.S. 9:2800.6). A guest who falls there must prove three things, including that the hotel created the hazard or had actual or constructive notice of it before the fall. The statute does not name guest rooms.
Cypress Bayou Casino Hotel is a Chitimacha Tribe enterprise, and the Tribe's code applies to it. It sends casino patrons' tort claims to Tribal Court and caps tort judgments against the Tribe or a business it owns at $500,000. Its Tribal Court hears no case filed more than one year after the injury. Act fast. In 2015 the Third Circuit held that tribal immunity did not bar a suit against a Paragon Casino bartender and two security guards sued individually, though those claims were later dismissed on other grounds.
Usually two years. For claims arising after July 1, 2024, you generally have two years from the injury to file a lawsuit (Civil Code art. 3493.1, Act 423 of 2024). A claim in Chitimacha Tribal Court must be filed within one year of the injury, and other tribes can set their own rules, so do not wait.
It depends on your share of fault. For causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, a person found 51% or more at fault recovers nothing, and a smaller share of fault cuts the award by that percentage (Civil Code art. 2323, as amended by Act 15 of 2025, effective January 1, 2026). For causes of action that arose before January 1, 2026, fault only reduces the award.
Not by its terms. Article 2945's $500 limit covers stolen or damaged belongings not handed to the hotel, and only where the hotel offers a safe deposit facility, posts notice of it and has not agreed in writing to more.
Report the injury to a manager, get the report number and photograph the spot before anything is cleaned. See a doctor before you travel home. Do not treat a comped room as a settlement. Then have a lawyer ask the hotel in writing to preserve its video.
After a hotel accident, the hotel has an insurer and the video. You should have a lawyer.
Call (337) 800-4000 or contact us online. The consultation is free, and there is no attorney fee unless we win. Clients may be responsible for costs and expenses.
Past results are not a guarantee of future success. Results may vary.
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