Collapsing Restroom Sink Injures a Restaurant Customer

Attorney Answer

Yes — a sink that comes off the wall onto a paying customer is a strong starting point for a Texas premises-liability claim. You still have to prove it, and the proof is in the restaurant's records, not in your memory.

A customer in a restaurant is an invitee, and that includes using the restroom. Corbin v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 648 S.W.2d 292 (Tex. 1983), states the duty the business owes: reasonable care to protect against unreasonable risks of harm on the property that it knows about or should know about. Keetch v. Kroger Co., 845 S.W.2d 262 (Tex. 1992), sets out what has to be proved — the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the condition, the condition posed an unreasonable risk of harm, the business failed to use reasonable care to reduce or eliminate the risk, and that failure proximately caused the injury. Keetch adds that a business that created the condition may be found to have known of it, though that alone does not establish knowledge as a matter of law.

Two things make a fixture case easier than an ordinary spill case. First, a wall-mounted sink is part of the building. It is installed, inspected and maintained by the business or by people it hires, and a customer has no way to test it before using it — so the argument that you should have seen the danger has very little to work with. Second, sinks do not simply let go. They come down when the anchors were set into drywall instead of blocking, when a leak has rotted the wall behind them, when a bracket was left loose after a repair, or when the fixture has been wobbling for months and nobody dealt with it. Each of those leaves a trail: repair invoices, plumber's work orders, employee complaints, health-inspection reports, prior customer reports.

That evidence belongs to the restaurant, and a small business does not keep it forever. Getting a written preservation request out early is what usually decides whether the knowledge element can be proved at all.

A deep cut across the thumb is more serious than it sounds. Tendon and nerve damage in a hand often shows up as lost strength, numbness or limited motion weeks later, and it can affect the kind of work a person can do. Follow it through, because what a claim is worth turns on the medical findings and no honest answer can put a number on it now.

What you can do

1. Follow up on the thumb with a doctor — ideally one who can assess tendon and nerve function — and go back if you notice weakness, numbness or trouble gripping. Keep the ambulance record, the emergency-room records, the imaging and every bill.

2. Report the incident to the restaurant in writing and ask for the incident report number and a copy. Email creates a record that you asked, which matters if they say nothing was ever reported.

3. Photograph the restroom if you can — the broken sink, the wall behind it, the anchors and brackets, and anything left on the floor. Photograph the injury and the stitches as they heal.

4. Keep the receipt or card statement from that visit. It fixes the restaurant, the date and the time.

5. Write down who was working, who you told, what they said, and whether anyone else saw it.

6. Do not give the restaurant's insurer a recorded statement or sign anything before you have talked with a lawyer, and do not accept an early offer before you know how the hand heals.

7. Ask a Texas attorney about sending a written demand that the business preserve the sink and its mounting hardware, its repair and maintenance records, and any video. On a small property, none of that lasts long.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts with a Texas attorney is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) requires a personal-injury suit to be brought not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues. When that period ends depends on facts specific to you, so have a Texas attorney review the dates rather than counting them yourself — and move well before then, because the maintenance records and the fixture itself are what prove the case, and they will not be there in two years.