Mike Rader and Austin Green successfully secured a $4 million dollar settlement on behalf of a 54-year-old local woman who was caused to trip and fall while walking on a sidewalk leading to a local retail store.
After the woman parked her car, she followed a direct path created by the store that led customers to its front entrance. Unfortunately, the path provided by the store funneled the woman directly over an unmarked and hidden storm drain. The storm drain had a 10-inch drop to the parking lot surface with a reverse concrete slope slanting toward the drain’s opening. When the woman stepped off the sidewalk, expecting a standard 4-inch drop onto a flat surface, she instead encountered a much larger drop onto the reversed-sloped concrete. The excess drop and slope were hidden from customers taking this path to the store. There were no warnings present or any visual cues that would have reasonably alerted customers to the drain nor any barricades to prevent customers from traversing through the hazardous area.
As a result of the fall, the woman suffered injuries to her right foot, ankle, and associated vascular injuries to her lower extremity. After significant medical treatment, and despite her physicians’ best efforts, the injuries ultimately required a below-the-knee amputation.
The case was fiercely defended for nearly two years and presented numerous legal questions and disputes, including: comparative fault, venue, choice-of-law, admissibility of expert witness testimony, and sufficiency of affirmative defenses. Ultimately, the case resolved for $4,000,000 after a lengthy mediation and near the eve of trial—just days before the pre-trial conference.
The successful resolution of the case hinged on several factors and meticulous case preparation, including a timely site inspection at the location of the fall, which allowed Rader, Green, and their numerous experts to inspect, photograph, and measure the site of the fall and preserve critical evidence. After the case was filed, Rader and Green began collecting hundreds of documents and took extensive depositions of key witnesses and employees to uncover all relevant information, facts, and evidence to support Plaintiff’s claims.
Rader and Green also assembled a team of highly qualified experts in the fields of civil engineering, multi-modal transportation, facility safety, parking lot design and planning. In anticipation of the store’s attempt to blame the woman, Rader and Green retained a human factors and ergonomic expert to address the lack of adequate warnings and the woman’s visual perception and behavior on the day of the fall. Finally, two medical experts were retained to opine on the woman’s mechanism of injury and resultant damages, including future life care costs related to the amputation, her prosthesis, and her associated physical limitations. The certified life care planner was able to examine the woman, study her medical records, and render opinions on what she will need in the future to improve her quality of life and address her new normal.
This settlement not only compensates the Plaintiff for her injuries but also underscores Bartimus Frickleton Robertson Rader’s commitment to holding property owners accountable for unsafe conditions that jeopardize public safety.
