Attorneys Scott C. Murray and Keith R. Hedrick recently settled a trip and fall accident claim for $160,000. This unfortunate incident occurred when our client, walking into the office of her medical provider, attempted to step up onto an excessively high non-coded compliant curb when she also encountered a heap or hardened asphalt beneath leaves. As a result, our client fell to the ground, landing on her right hand/wrist and sustained a comminuted intra-articular fracture of the right distal radial metaphysis with overlapping bone fragments as well as a fracture to the fifth metatarsal of her right foot. Ultimately, our client required surgery to her right wrist with the use of implanted hardware.
Hidden asphalt heap and abrupt change in elevation
Unfortunately, the insurance company placed blame on our client for this incident and our law firm was forced to file a lawsuit in Palm Beach County. During discovery, it came to light that the defendant was on notice of the dangerous condition. In fact, the property manager testified that she “had a giggle” about the dangerous condition when deciding not to fix, warn, or remediate the code violation in any way.
Illustration (left) of a comminuted intra-articular fracture of the wrist and our client’s right wrist (right) post-surgery
Through the hard work of our Team, Paralegals, and Attorneys Scott C. Murray and Keith R. Hedrick, we were able to negotiate a settlement of $160,000 at mediation with the insurance company of the at fault party. The settlement helped to compensate our client, in part, for her injuries and pain and suffering. Further, this claim forced the property owner to finally remediate the dangerous condition so that an incident like this will not happen in the future. Hopefully, this type of dangerous condition will not be treated as a laughing matter in the future.
