Dawn Bristol Wins a Defense Verdict

On September 14, 2022, Dawn Bristol secured a defendant’s verdict for a Staten Island property development and management company in a premises liability case tried in Richmond Supreme Court before the Honorable Lizette Colon.  Plaintiff claimed that the defendant, as owners of the subject property, failed to properly maintain a stairwell and failed to properly clean water that leaked from a standpipe onto to a stairwell landing, which resulted in a greasy substance ordinarily contained in standpipe water being tracked into the hallway of premises leased by a non-party tenant, which caused the plaintiff to slip and fall. The defenses included that the common areas of the building for which the defendant was responsible were maintained in good and proper condition, that the defendant appropriately remediated the standpipe leak, that the hallway where the alleged fall occurred was a private area maintained by the tenant, and that there was no nexus between the small water leak onto the stairwell landing and plaintiff’s fall in the tenant’s hallway the following day. The jury found no negligence on the part of the landlord in the liability portion of the trial eliminating the need for a damages trial.  Injuries alleged included rotator cuff tear with failed subsequent surgery, multiple cervical and lumbosacral disk herniations with nerve impingement, multiple spinal injections, lumbar discectomy, and subsequent lumbar spinal fusion.  Plaintiff also claimed to have permanent disability, chronic cervical and lumbar radiculopathy, chronic back and arm pain, and require ongoing pain management treatment, therapy, and further surgery. 

Dawn Bristol

Partner

(516) 282-3355