Keycard access

Definition

Hours the club opens on a member's card, which one state caps and conditions outright.

Why It Matters

California makes unstaffed hours a statutory matter and not an insurance one. A health studio letting members in with no employee present must train every employee in resuscitation and defibrillator use within thirty days of hire, keep a trained employee on the premises for no fewer than fifty hours a week, tell each member when they contract that a trained employee will not always be there, and deny access entirely while no employee is present if the space is larger than six thousand square feet. The cost that dwarfs the payroll sits in the next subsection: a studio open on cards without trained staff waives the affirmative defense of primary assumption of the risk, express or implied, for a claim arising out of that absence. That is the defense which ordinarily ends a gym injury case, surrendered by operation of law.