Grounds for lawsuit?

[mcantar18c]

Wife and BIL/adopted son got stuck in an elevator in their cousins apartment earlier. It was stuck between floors. I was out in the car, and my wife left didn't have her phone on her.
Luckily I heard them pressing the elevator alarm button (sounds only when depressed), because the fire dep't call button was not working (she tried multiple times, we had to call from her uncle's phone). Had I not been close enough to hear the alarm, or had I had the car door closed, they would have been stuck in there till I got impatient enough to go find them. If she hadn't gone up with him, it would have been only the 12yo stuck in there... bad day.
I usually roll my eyes when I hear about Johnny suing Suzy because she sold him toilet paper that was too rough, but the wife brought it up and I told her I'd look into it. Would we have grounds for a lawsuit, and if so against whom? The building management? Maintenance? Whoever inspected/cert'd the elevator? The elevator mfg?

[GilpinGuy]

Was anyone injured or caused any harm at all except some lost time? If not, I can't see any "reasonable" lawsuit here. But I'm not an attorney....not even close. Tell management, then feel good that you brought an obvious problem to management so they can fix the problem so no real harm is done in the future. My $0.02

[Irving]

First, in what way have they suffered a loss?
Second, there would be investigation into how regularly the equipment was inspected, and if the management company responsible for said equipment had prior knowledge of the malfunction.

[tmleadr03]

First, in what way have they suffered a loss?
Second, there would be investigation into how regularly the equipment was inspected, and if the management company responsible for said equipment had prior knowledge of the malfunction.

Pain and suffering.

[Irving]

It'd be a stretch I think, but I have no idea how long they were in there.

[Brian]

Was anyone injured or caused any harm at all except some lost time? If not, I can't see any "reasonable" lawsuit here. But I'm not an attorney....not even close. Tell management, then feel good that you brought an obvious problem to management so they can fix the problem so no real harm is done in the future. My $0.02

+1 Only way I'd consider actually suing for a situation like this is if someone were actually hurt, or if it took that drastic a course of action to force the company to fix the problem. Would definitely start with a polite but firm conversation with management.

[ChunkyMonkey]

Yeah.. I would put in a stern complain, but I usually leave the lawsuits to the libs.

[mcantar18c]

That's the direction I was leaning towards. I'll share this with her, thanks all.

In other news, the Delray, FL PD is going to get a stern letter from me. Two officers showed up along with the FD (not sure why they were there in the first place, but I assume its standard procedure when the FD shows up). I didn't spend much time around the first one, but he was about 50lbs overweight and it was all in his gut, looked like a very heavy drinker. The second guy had so much bullshit on his equipment belt that I'm surprised he fit through a doorway, but what got me was his personal cell phone (iPhone 4s in an Otterbox case+belt holster) clipped to the snap flap on one of his spare mags. He was bullshitting with us while we were waiting on the FD to shut off power to the elevator in question, and trying to be polite about it I said "Officer, is that really the best place to put your cell phone?"
His response was a shrug and a nonchalant "Yeah."
I told him to take it from someone who's actually been shot at and shot back before, it might be a good idea to reconsider that. He shrugged it off and kept bullshitting with the inlaws that lived there.
Apparently the Delray PD has no physical or competency standards.

[argonstrom]

Should have lobbed a round into the reset button to get it moving again.

[AR_ART]

Yeah, I agree with the others, file a complaint rather than sue.. You can sue for just about anything, just got to find a lawyer to do so.... I know in California, they had this thing called "Frivolous Lawsuit"... I don't know how it worked, but that was something I believe someone being sued could use as a countersuit.... and if they won, you, the person filing the initial suit could be liable for all kinds of financial stuff.... obviously it doesn't work in that law suit happy state....