Practice Area: Personal injury
Date: Jun 15, 2015
Outcome: $600,000 settlement
Description: The owner of a shopping plaza failed to inspect or replace rotting wood separators embedded in the sidewalk. Plaintiff was on his way to see his chiropractor when his foot caught on a loose, rotting separator in the sidewalk just outside the doctor’s office. This caused Plaintiff to fall to the ground, while propelling the separator out of the sidewalk. Plaintiff was impaled in the neck, dissecting one of his vertebral arteries, and causing a minor stroke in his cerebellum. Liability was hotly contested, as was the permanency of Plaintiff’s injuries and resulting damages. Defendant argued that the event was a freak accident that could not be foreseen or prevented. Defendant argued Plaintiff had recovered with only minor deficits from his stroke, and would suffer no permanent injuries. The case was settled at mediation a month before trial.