Man hurt because company let yellow warning paint fade

Safety insight: Now might be a good time to confirm that all warning signs and other written or painted safety indicators haven’t faded over time and are still clearly visible.

What happened: Even though it was standard industry practice to apply yellow paint around floor openings, an employer allowed the yellow paint around one opening to fade. As a result, workers couldn’t quickly determine whether the cover for the opening was open or closed.

What people did: A contract employee was climbing down a fixed ladder above the opening. He’d used the same ladder earlier in the shift and the cover had been closed, so he assumed that it was still shut. However, someone had opened the cover since he last climbed the ladder. When the contract worker stepped off the ladder, he fell 9 feet through the opening and landed on the ground. He was badly hurt.

Legal challenge: The injured contract staffer sued the host employer, arguing that it had a legal duty to apply yellow paint to the opening, in which case he could’ve more readily seen that the cover was open.

Result: The company lost. The court ruled that the host employer might be legally liable for the injury incident because it failed to maintain the yellow paint around the opening even though it was standard industry practice to do so. While the injured contract worker should’ve been more careful when he stepped off the ladder, said the judge, he probably wouldn’t have been injured if the floor opening had been more clearly visible to him.

The skinny: Companies that disregard basic safety protocols that are standard within their industry rarely get favorable court rulings.

Cite: Palmer v. Kaisha, U.S. District Court, N.D. California, No. 24-cv-00309, 9/29/25.

(From the December 22, 2025, issue of Safety Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click here.)