Articles Posted in Slip and Fall Accidents

In November 2013, Suzanne Barnum was injured when she tripped over a pallet jack in a Home Depot store in Joliet, Illinois. As a result, she is suing both Home Depot and an outside vendor for her injuries. In this particular case, the question of who left the pallet jack in the aisle has been difficult to answer. At the time of the incident, employees of Glenn Walters Nursery were in the store, and may have been assisting with the pallet jack. However, both nursery employees and Home Depot employees deny that they were responsible for leaving the pallet jack unattended. According to evidence, it could have been an employee of either company.

The home improvement retailer requested that Barnum’s injury and liability claims be dismissed, arguing that they are “based on speculation and, therefore, have not created a genuine issue of material fact showing that either defendant breached its duty of ordinary care to plaintiff.”   Both Home Depot and Glenn Walters Nursery requested summary judgment, which is appropriate when a plaintiff fails to prove key elements of his or her claim.

“More Likely than Not”

Magistrate Judge Susan E. Cox denied the request for a summary judgment, writing that: “In this case, the court finds that plaintiff has pointed to sufficient evidence in the record from which it can be inferred that either defendant was more likely than not to have left the pallet jack in the aisle of the garden center.”

The home goods giant and the local nursery have cited Piotrowski v. Menard in their arguments. In the Piotrowski case, a customer tripped over planter stones that had spilled onto a walkway at a Menard’s store. However, the stones could have ended up on the walkway for a number of reasons, including simply rolling out of the nearby planter, or that a customer or child moved them. In Barnum’s case, however, the explanations as to how the pallet jack ended up in the aisle are limited. Customers are not allowed to use or move pallet jacks, so the chance of anyone other than an employee or vendor being involved is slim to none.

Witness statements suggest that an employee from either company could have left the pallet jack in the aisle. There is evidence that nursery employees used it that morning, but also that a Home Depot employee helped them. Both continue to deny responsibility. A Boston personal injury lawyer can help you determine how to proceed if you’ve been injured due to another’s negligence.

“Glenn Walters Nursery’s internal communications suggest that it was a Home Depot employee, which is sufficient evidence to infer that it was more likely than not Home Depot that was responsible for leaving the pallet jack in the aisle, thereby defeating its motion for summary judgment,” wrote Cox. However, such evidence doesn’t exonerate nursery employees. As such, Glenn Walters’ request for summary judgment was also denied.  Continue reading

Bill Waite was leaving a York, Pennsylvania shopping center when he tripped over an unmarked step, suffering serious injuries that left him blind. The unmarked step, which was located on an otherwise level walkway, may have resulted in the largest personal injury award in the county’s history. The property owner was found negligent due to the lack of signage alerting customers to the step.

According to the 80-year-old victim’s lawsuit, he had very little functional sight in his right eye before the incident. When he tripped over the step, Waite fell into a chair outside of a tattoo shop, striking his left eye. The accident left him effectively blind. Before the accident, Waite loved to spend time with his family and play golf. Now, Waite says, family gatherings are like “sitting in a dark closet listening to people on the outside.” A MA injury lawyer can help you proceed if you’ve been injured in a slip and fall accident.

Waite, who was 80 years old when the fall occurred in 2012, declined to comment, saying only that he “wished the incident had never happened and he hoped the money would make life easier for his wife.” The reality is, slip and fall accidents among the elderly are relatively common. In some instances, falls are a result of physical ailments, not property owner negligence. However, the age of the victim doesn’t excuse a property owner from taking responsibility for foreseeable conditions on their property. If a property owner knows about, or should have known about, a dangerous condition, he or she may be liable if someone is injured as a result. Due to the lack of marking on the step that Waite tripped over, the property owner was found negligent.

Slip and Fall Accident Statistics

Slip and fall accidents are one of the leading causes of personal injury lawsuits in the United States today. And they are one of the most dangerous types of accident. A Boston injury lawyer can help you determine if you have a successful injury claim following a slip and fall accident.

• More women experience work-related slip and fall accidents than their male counterparts.
• Falls are the top cause of emergency department visits, accounting for more than eight million ER visits annually.
• Fractures, which occur in about five percent of falls, are the most common serious injury suffered from slip and fall accidents.
• Slip and fall accidents are the primary cause of missed work due to work-related injuries.
• For workers age 55 and over, falls are the leading cause of occupational injury.
• According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than two million annual slip and fall injuries are a direct result of floors and flooring materials.
• Falls account for about 50 percent of all accidental deaths that occur in the home.
• Falls are the second leading cause of fatal injury for people between the ages of 65 and 84, and the leading cause of fatal injury for people age 85 and over.

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Slip and fall accidents are among the most dangerous injury accidents in the United States. In fact, they account for about 15 percent of all accidental deaths, second only to motor vehicle crashes. If you are injured in a slip and fall accident in a store, a Boston injury attorney can help you determine who is liable for your injuries. Any business that openly welcomes the public onto its property has a duty to keep the property reasonably safe at all times. When injuries or property damages occur due to negligence, any number of parties may be liable – the property owner, the store owner, the property manager, or the lessee.

Examples of Injury Awards

Slip and fall accidents that occur on store properties are often the result of spilled liquids, cluttered walkways, poor lighting, or snow and ice accumulation in parking lots and on walkways. The following injury awards provide detailed examples of actual slip and fall accidents and the possible outcomes.

• A woman injured her knee in a Home Depot parking lot when her shopping cart hit a manhole cover that was submerged in water. Despite Home Depot’s claim that the danger was obvious, the box store was found to be 95 percent at fault. The woman received an injury award of $950,000 from Home Depot.

• In another case involving Home Depot, a man slipped and fell on an icy walkway leading into the store. The man suffered torn quadriceps as a result. Although Home Depot claimed that the area had been inspected only two hours before the incident, the home renovations giant was ordered to pay more than $159,000 to the man for his injuries.

• In a third Home Depot slip and fall case, a Pennsylvania woman was awarded more than $44,000 after she slipped on an unknown substance in a Home Depot aisle. Her injuries sent her to the emergency department where she was treated for lower back pain.

• A woman slipped on ice in a NY Walmart parking lot and was subsequently hit by a sheet of ice that fell from the roof above her. The accident resulted in a severe injury to her left arm. Walmart was ordered to pay the woman $600,000 for her arm injury, which required surgery to repair.

• A woman injured her spine when an automatic entrance door at a Connecticut Walmart struck her in the back, knocking her to the floor. She was awarded more than $200,000 for her injuries. A MA injury attorney can help you determine if you have a legal claim following a slip and fall accident in a store.

• While carrying a large package of paper towels, a 54-year old heart surgeon tripped over a trailer hitch in the parking lot of a Sam’s Club. When he fell to the ground, he suffered a severe spinal injury which subsequently ended his career. The surgeon received $3.96 million for his injuries.

• When a woman slipped on liquid soap in a California Costco store, she shattered her kneecap, suffering partial loss of mobility. When evidence revealed that multiple employees had noticed the spill but failed to clean it up, the woman was awarded $400,000 for pain and suffering and medical expenses.

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