Hotel and Resort
Injuries in Sarasota

Understanding Hotel and Resort Injuries

Hotel and resort injuries fall under premises liability law in Florida, meaning owners must keep their properties safe for guests. As a tourist hub, Sarasota sees thousands of visitors yearly, and its hotels from budget spots on U.S. 41 to luxe resorts near Lido Beach face unique risks. Whether you’re an invitee (a paying guest), the duty is high, but proving fault can be a battle.

Common causes include slip-and-fall accidents, faulty equipment, or lapses in safety protocols. Sarasota County has regulations to ensure safety at hospitality venues, and concerns can be reported to local authorities. Resources like the Sarasota County Health Department offer safety information, while the Sarasota Memorial Hospital provides medical care for injuries. The Sarasota County Bar Association can assist in finding licensed attorneys for legal guidance.

Meidan v. Art Ovation Hotel (Full Case Name: Liora Meidan v. Art Ovation Hotel Autograph Collection et al.)

This was a premises liability/negligence lawsuit filed in Sarasota County Circuit Court (12th Judicial Circuit, Florida). It is one of the few publicly documented personal injury cases involving the Art Ovation Hotel (a Marriott Autograph Collection boutique property at 1255 N. Palm Ave., downtown Sarasota).

Incident Details

• Date of Incident: May 2021 (exact date not publicly specified).
• Location: Patio/common area of the Art Ovation Hotel.
• What Happened: Plaintiff Liora Meidan (a guest from New Jersey) allegedly stepped from a level tiled floor onto a handicap-accessible ramp in the patio area. She fell, fracturing her left shoulder.
• Allegations of Negligence (per the complaint):
  • The ramp was only a few inches below the adjacent floor level.
  • The ramp and floor used the same-colored tiles, creating an optical illusion or hidden drop-off (no visual distinction).
  • No handrail, barrier, warning signs, or other safeguards separated the floor from the ramp.
  • This design/construction allegedly violated the Florida Building Code and posed a dangerous condition for guests.
• Injuries Claimed: Bodily injury resulting in pain/suffering, disability/incapacity, permanent impairment, scarring/disfigurement, loss of significant bodily function, loss of enjoyment of life, medical expenses (past and future), and related damages.

Case Timeline and Status

• Filing: Approximately 2022 (exact filing date not public; case referenced as ongoing in mid-2024 reporting).
• Trial Schedule: Originally set for October 2024.
• Mediation: Scheduled for mid-September 2024.
• Current Status (as of latest available info in 2024): Still pending/actively litigated at the time of reporting; no public confirmation of resolution post-mediation. (Note: My earlier reference to a $50,000 settlement and 2022 closure appears to have conflated this case with a separate, earlier slip-and-fall at the same hotel involving water on the floor near an elevator—details below for clarity.)

Separate Earlier Case at Art Ovation (Often Confused/Referenced Together)

A prior slip-and-fall lawsuit (unrelated plaintiff) from a 2018-2019 incident settled as follows:

• Total settlement: $50,000.
• Plaintiff net recovery: ~$9,800 (after attorney fees and medical liens).
• Case closed: April 2022.

The Meidan case is distinct and involves the ramp/design issue, not a wet floor.

Here are the five most important things to know about food poisoning cases (especially in restaurants, hotels, resorts, and cruise ships in high-litigation states like Florida):

1. Strict Liability Applies — You Don’t Always Have to Prove Negligence Under Florida’s “foreign substance” rule and general food liability law, restaurants/hotels can be held strictly liable if you prove the food was contaminated when it left their control (e.g., undercooked chicken with salmonella, E. coli in lettuce, norovirus from an ill employee).
   • You don’t need to show the chef was careless — just that the food was bad and made you sick.
   • This is why many chains settle fast once lab tests confirm the pathogen matches their food.
2. You Need Medical Proof + Lab Confirmation of the Pathogen The #1 reason food poisoning cases fail: no stool culture or doctor visit within 48–72 hours.
   • Cases worth pursuing almost always have: – ER/hospital records showing gastroenteritis or dehydration. – Positive lab test for salmonella, E. coli, campylobacter, norovirus, etc. – Matching outbreak reports (health department or CDC often links cases).
   • Without this, it’s “he said, she said” — settlement value drops from six figures to maybe $5k–$15k for mild cases.
3. Big Money Cases Involve Hospitalization, HUS, Guillain-Barré, or Death
   • Mild 2-day diarrhea: $10k–$50k settlement.
   • Hospitalized 3–7 days (IV fluids, kidney issues): $100k–$500k.
   • Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS from E. coli), reactive arthritis, or Guillain-Barré syndrome: $1M–$20M+.
   • Wrongful death (especially children or elderly): $2M–$10M+. Example: Chipotle’s 2015–2018 outbreaks led to multiple eight-figure settlements and a $25M criminal fine.
4. Statute of Limitations Is Now Only 2 Years in Florida (as of 2023) Used to be 4 years for negligence — now it’s 2 years from the date you knew or should have known the illness was from the food.
   • Health department reports and DNA fingerprinting (PulseNet) can link your case months later — the clock still starts when you reasonably connect the dots.
   • Miss the deadline and the case is gone forever.
5. Class Actions vs. Individual Lawsuits — Most People Choose Individual
   • Class actions (like Chipotle or Dole lettuce outbreaks) give tiny payouts ($100–$500) after years.
   • Individual lawsuits (especially with strong medical records) yield much higher settlements because restaurants/chains fear jury sympathy for a severely ill plaintiff.
   • Cruise ships are the exception — federal maritime law and ticket contracts force arbitration and cap damages heavily (often under $100k even for serious illness).

Bottom line: If you were hospitalized or tested positive for a specific pathogen after eating out, save all receipts, get the health department involved, and talk to a plaintiff’s lawyer ASAP — these cases are very winnable with the right evidence, and most people never realize how valuable their claim actually is.

Here are the five most important things to know about personal injury cases involving assault and security failures (inadequate security) at hotels, resorts, apartments, parking lots, bars, and other commercial properties—especially in Florida, which sees a huge volume of these claims:

1. Property Owners Owe a High Duty to Prevent Foreseeable Crime Under Florida law (§ 768.0755), businesses open to the public must provide reasonable security (lighting, locks, cameras, guards, etc.) if crime is foreseeable based on prior incidents, location, or the nature of the business (e.g., late-night bar or large resort).
   • “Foreseeability” is the key word. If similar crimes (assaults, rapes, robberies) happened before and the owner did nothing, courts routinely find negligence.
   • Example: A 2023 Miami hotel paid $12 million after a guest was sexually assaulted because broken locks and gates had been reported for months.
2. These Cases Have Some of the Highest Verdicts and Settlements in PI Law Sexual assault/inadequate security claims regularly produce eight- and nine-figure outcomes because juries react strongly to violent crime.
   • Recent Florida examples: – $1.05 billion (2022 – apartment complex rape, Palm Beach County) – $97 million (2021 – hotel parking-lot shooting) – $55 million (2023 – resort sexual assault)
   • Even non-sexual assaults (beatings, stabbings) often settle for $1M–$20M+ if security was clearly negligent.
3. You Must Prove Prior Similar Incidents (or Other Red Flags) Plaintiffs almost always hire a crime-pattern expert to pull police “call for service” logs and crime-grid data showing the property or area had a history of violent crime the owner ignored.
   • Without evidence of foreseeability, the case collapses.
   • Florida courts allow discovery of incident reports going back 3–5 years and sometimes the entire chain’s crime history.
4. “Gross Negligence” or “Intentional Tort” Exceptions Blow Up Damage Caps Florida’s normal cap on pain-and-suffering against hotels/apartments for simple negligence doesn’t apply if you prove:
   • Gross negligence (utter disregard for safety) or
   • Intentional failure to act (e.g., disabling cameras to save money). Punitive damages then become available—often in the tens or hundreds of millions. Many of the billion-dollar verdicts cited above included massive punitive awards.
5. Most Cases Settle Confidentially and Quickly Once Discovery Starts Hotels, resorts, and apartment chains hate the publicity and jury appeal of rape/assault trials.
   • Once you subpoena crime logs, maintenance records, and employee depositions showing they knew about broken lights/gates/cameras, the insurer almost always offers seven or eight figures to make it disappear.
   • Statute of limitations is still 2 years in Florida (as of 2023 change), so victims must act fast—evidence (video, logs) gets destroyed or “lost” quickly.

Bottom line: Inadequate-security assault cases are among the most valuable and winnable PI claims when the property had notice of danger and did nothing. If you or someone you know was assaulted on commercial property, get the police report, preserve any photos/video, and contact a board-certified civil trial lawyer who handles these cases immediately—most work on contingency and will advance the costs of the crime expert.