FACT:

Bright and early on a beautiful Monday morning, you settle into your corner office as director of customer relations at Sage Springs Resort in British Columbia. Your assistant comes in with your morning appointments and you see "Cindy McGee" is your 9am appointment. You have never heard of her. You ask your assistant what this is about, and she proceeds to tell you:

Upper management has been dealing with Cindy (she called the president directly last week) and they are punting her over to you now. Last weekend, apparently, she and a couple of friends were camping near the hotel at the hot springs source pool. She somehow fell into the pool and is now claiming she has severe burns and lacerations from falling. Upper management spoke with her last week and it seems like she was wandering around in the dark when this all happened. They think it is all nothing and they want you to just find a way to make her go away. But they don't want her to go nuts and make the resort look bad all over social media.

You quickly call in your operations team and ask them about what the source pool looks like and what kind of hazard it is exactly. They tell you:

It is the natural source pool that feeds into the resort's hot springs and pools. It is located at the very edge of the hotel property about a fifteen minute walk from the main resort. There is a building around the source pool made of concrete blocks and mesh. There are parts of the pool that are enclosed with a high fence. The temperature of the pool is around 60 degrees celcius. There are signs all around the building that say "Caution: very hot water".

You glance at your watch and realize you are already two minutes late for your meeting with Cindy. You thank your team and rush off to the client meeting room. Cindy is waiting for you. She is wearing bandages across her face and hands (and is otherwise wearing long sleeves and long pants). You sit down with her and say "Cindy, I am so sorry to see you like this. What can we do for you?" Cindy looks up at you and begins to cry, saying everyone has given her the runaround in upper management and all she wants is someone to actually listen to her and take some responsibility for what the resort did wrong. You ask her what happened and she says:

Me and two friends came up late at night, around midnight, last Friday. We couldn't see much, so we hiked in off the road and pitched a tent as the woods cleared. We went exploring around the site and we saw a bit of dim lights in a building, so we went to see what it was. We climbed up onto the concrete abutment and onto a fence and saw a lit pool with steam coming off. I climbed over the fence and let go into the pool. I managed to scramble out but I was scalded. My friends drove me right away to the hospital and they treated me. I haven't been at work since.

You reply to Cindy "that sounds horribly painful. You leave this with me and know that we are certainly listening to you. Let me take this away again and I promise I will get back to you as quick as I can. In the meantime, here is my personal extension number in case you ever need to get a hold of me."

Cindy leaves and you are left in the empty meeting room. You stare down at your desk, trying to call up vague memories of the commercial law course you took in undergrad. You sift through the papers the operations team left you to see if there is anything that might be helpful, a few things leap off the page:

The resort is the owner of the structures surrounding the source pool and is in charge of upkeep for the structures. At the time of the incident, there was some rust on the fence, since minerals from the hot springs quickly weather metal and other materials.

The resort built the structures around the pool. It was originally built to prevent people from getting into the water and to stop people from throwing garbage into it.

There is a security guard who checks the source pool and buildings as part of his rounds, but given the length of his rounds, he usually only checks it once every two hours.

There are no signs that say the source pool is private property. Only the signs that say "Caution: very hot water".

Since the incident, higher walls of concrete blocks have been built on the side of the source pool that Cindy entered. At the time Cindy climbed the wall, it was possible for an adult to lean over the wall and climb onto it.

You are not quite sure what to do, but as a first step, you know you will have to sort out what has happened so far and the best way to go forward.

QUESTIONS: If Cindy were to bring a claim, what would it be under?

How strong is Cindy's claim?

What communication with Cindy, if any, you think is appropriate

What communication with the public, if any, you think is appropriate

What steps, if any, upper management needs to take in the next few weeks (these can be operational, legal, human resources-related...be creative!).

What is the best outcome for the business here?