A non-profit organization has operated a community recreation centre in a mid-sized Canadian city for 14 years, serving approximately 800 members ranging from youth sports participants to seniors attending fitness classes. The organization does not own the building outright but holds a 10-year lease with the municipal government, which retains ownership of the structure while the non-profit exercises day-to-day control over operations, programming, and facility maintenance. Under the lease agreement signed 6 years ago, the organization assumed responsibility for interior upkeep, cleaning, and seasonal preparations, while the municipality retained obligations for major structural repairs and exterior grounds maintenance during winter months.
The centre includes a gymnasium with a hardwood floor, a multipurpose room used for community meetings and children's birthday parties, a small commercial kitchen, locker rooms with shower facilities, and an outdoor parking area shared with an adjacent municipal office building. Programming runs 7 days per week, with the facility open from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on weekdays and reduced hours on weekends. The organization employs 4 full-time staff members and relies on approximately 25 volunteers who assist with programs, front desk coverage, and facility supervision during peak hours.
During an evening basketball league session, a participant slipped on the gymnasium floor and sustained injuries requiring medical attention. The injured individual, a 38-year-old league participant, later alleged that water had accumulated on the floor near the entrance to the gymnasium from melting snow tracked in by players arriving from the parking lot. The incident occurred approximately 90 minutes after the evening shift began and roughly 45 minutes after the last documented inspection of the gymnasium floor by a volunteer on duty.
The organization's executive director began gathering records in anticipation of a potential claim. These records included the membership waiver signed by the injured participant 8 months earlier, the volunteer training materials covering floor inspection protocols, the maintenance log entries from the week of the incident, and photographs taken by a staff member approximately 2 hours after the fall. The waiver contained language releasing the organization from liability for injuries sustained during recreational activities, though the scope and enforceability of that language remained uncertain. No warning signs or floor mats had been placed at the gymnasium entrance on the evening in question, and the organization's written policies regarding wet floor protocols had not been updated since the original lease was signed 6 years earlier.