Slip and Fall

April 2, 2017

Slip-and-Fall Injury Suffered by Child Litigated Years Later

One recent appeal from the Mississippi Supreme Court involved a slip-and-fall accident that was anything but your typical personal injury case. In this case, the plaintiff had slipped and fell in a store owned by the defendant, but that accident occurred in 1989. He was three years old at the time of his accident.

He filed the lawsuit against the defendant many years later when he reached the age of majority. In his lawsuit, he alleged that he was seriously injured because the store had negligently allowed the floor to become slick, and he slipped on this floor. He said that, as he developed, it became apparent that he had suffered various injuries as a result of this fall that caused him to have a significant traumatic brain injury. Continue reading

March 29, 2017

Slip-and-Fall Injury at Big Box Store

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

In a recent case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, plaintiff had filed a personal injury lawsuit after he suffered an alleged slip-and-fall injury in defendant’s big box retail store. According to court testimony, the plaintiff was walking in the store when he fell on water that had allegedly been left on the floor in a negligent manner.

Plaintiff’s sister was present when the accident occurred, as was a store employee. It was not clear whether the employee actually saw the plaintiff fall, but she did get a wheelchair owned by the store to transport the victim to the front of the store, where he was taken to a local emergency room to be treated for his injuries. As for the cause of his injuries, plaintiff argued that the store roof was negligently maintained, and that resulted in water leaking from the ceiling and was negligently allowed to pool on the floor, which caused him to slip and fall, resulting in his personal injury.
Continue reading

February 24, 2017

Omarosa Manigault Suffers Leg Injury at White House

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Omarosa Manigualt, of “Celebrity Apprentice” fame, known generally by her first name, Omarosa, injured her foot or ankle while at the White House, according to TMZ. Omarosa was at the White House as President Donald J. Trump appointed her as the director of communications for his office of public liaison. This basically means she was named an adviser to Mr. Trump.

While the extent of her injury is unknown, as it could be either a fracture or a strain of some kind, it has been reported that she injured her leg at the White House and was then taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on the campus of what was formally known as the Bethesda Naval Hospital before Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). Continue reading

December 29, 2016

Report: Jury Finds for Plaintiff in Snow Slip-and-Fall Case

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Winter in Boston and across the New England is notoriously hazardous – not just for those in cars, but for those on foot as well. Wet snow is trampled into building entryways and sidewalks are slick with ice. While a slip-and-fall injury can certainly happen at any time of the year, it is in the winter when we often see an increase to the presence of ice and snow on the sidewalks and roads of the commonwealth.

Some of these slip-and-fall cases in Boston can result in serious injury, and, in some cases, it is the fault of an adjacent business owner or company responsible for keeping a parking lot maintained that should be held liable for any damages caused. Continue reading

November 27, 2016

Falls Are Leading Cause of Elder Injury in Massachusetts

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Falls are the leading cause of injuries suffered by elders in Massachusetts, according to a recent news article from the Worcester Telegram. This article focuses on how these falls are not only dangerous for elders, but are also largely preventable. In terms of a personal injury lawsuit involving an elder injury, it is often a question of whether or not a defendant acted reasonably so as to prevent the fall accident from occurring.

One man interviewed for the article said his fall was a result of wearing socks on slick bathroom tiles. He suffered serious injuries as a result of his fall in the bathroom, and he showed the results of those injuries to his classmates in an exercise program to help get seniors to improve their balance and maintain their strength, so these types of accidents are less likely to happen in the future. He also said beyond stretching and improving his balance, he is learning to be more cognizant of his movements as means of preventing another serious fall accident. Continue reading

October 20, 2016

Goodwin v. Al J. Schneider Co. – Hotel Slip-and-Fall Lawsuit

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

In Goodwin v. Al J. Schneider Co., a case recently weighed by the Kentucky Supreme Court, plaintiff was injured while attending a convention at a hotel and conference center owned by defendant. Plaintiff was staying at the hotel with his wife and was injured while taking a shower.

According to court records, plaintiff was tying to step into the bathtub to take a shower when he slipped and fell to the floor, thus injuring his knee. In his personal injury lawsuit following his slip-and-fall accident, plaintiff alleged that this bathtub did not have a grab bar, and there was not a bathmat at the bottom of the tub. He also testified that, after the fall, the hotel gave him a bathmat, and that he learned that other guests had bathmats in their rooms. Continue reading

August 29, 2016

Bixenmann v. Dickenson Land Surveyors, Inc. – Standard of Care in Personal Injury Cases

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

When someone is going to subdivide a parcel of real property, often before it can be sold as a build-able lot, the land owner will have to get a survey performed. While surveying has changed a great deal over the past 10 years as we moved from using chains similar to how a First Down in football is marked to sophisticated laser devices, surveying still relies heavily on the use of landmarks.

A landmark can be a natural thing such as large tree, or it can be an item placed in the ground by the surveyor. The purpose of the survey is to mark off where one property ends and the adjacent one begins and then create a map or survey of that land to record in the records office. This way, there is no question as to where the property line is situated. One of the common methods for marking these lines is for a surveyor to place a wooden stake in the ground and then put a safety flag on it to make it visible. After the perimeter has been marked, the surveyor will then replace the stake with a piece of metal rebar known as an iron and sink it into the ground so it can be found on a metal detector. Continue reading

August 2, 2016

Edwards v. Hy-Vee, Inc. – Slip and Fall Injury Cases

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

In Edwards v. Hy-Vee Inc., an injury lawsuit heard recently by the Nebraska Supreme Court, plaintiff was shopping at a grocery store owned by defendant. While plaintiff was in the store, an employee was handing out samples of watermelon to customers. When the plaintiff was about six feet away from the man handing out watermelon samples, she slipped and fell to the floor.

She filed a lawsuit against the defendant, and there was testimony that the reason for her fall was that she slipped on what appeared to be watermelon. She argues that the store knew or should have known that the floor was wet due to the watermelon and that a customer could likely slip and fall on that watermelon, which is what happened in this case. Continue reading

July 31, 2016

Bernardoni v. City of Saginaw – Sidewalk Trip-and-Fall

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Proving negligence in a sidewalk slip-and-fall case can be challenging due to a myriad of factors.

The first reason is that, more often than not, you’re dealing with a public entity, with all of the legal hurdles that entails (i.e., sovereign immunity, etc.).The second reason is that you have to prove the defendant had actual or constructive knowledge of the defect. That means the defendant was either informed of the actual flaw or that the defect existed for such a length of time the defendant, in using reasonable care, should have learned about it.

Although we don’t tend to think of trip-and-fall negligence cases as requiring an expert witness as we would for, say, a medical malpractice lawsuit, it’s something that may need to be considered. Continue reading

July 11, 2016

Escalator Injuries an Ongoing Threat to Children, Elderly

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Two years ago, the family of a 4-year-old boy killed in a 2011 escalator accident at the Auburn Mall Massachusetts reached a settlement with the escalator manufacturer and owner of the store where the escalator accident took place.

The child was fatally injured when a guardrail on the escalator pulled him through a gap between a plexiglass divider and the escalator and he fell 18 feet onto a display case below. He died at the hospital the next day of blunt force trauma to the head.

According to recent statistics published by the American Association for Justice, this case was indicative of so many escalator accidents that happen every year in that it:

Involved a young child;
Involved a fall.

The report indicated there are a growing number of escalator injuries in the U.S. every year, most involving children or the elderly, and a significant number involving not entrapment, but falls. Continue reading