Slip and fall on snow and ice

Feb 06, 2013

OUTCOME: Plaintiff obtains substantial six fiqure settlement

This case involved an unfortunate, but relatively common condition faced by travelers in Massachusetts in the winter; namely a devastating slip and fall injury caused by an icy parking lot surface. Whi ... le these types of cases are often times the most difficult to win, the plaintiff in this instance was able to receive a substantial settlement proving that a thorough and early investigation is critical to achieving a fair result. By way of background, the plaintiff shattered her left patella when she slipped and fell on an icy patch while stepping off the rear walkway onto the parking lot pavement at a local hotel in the early morning. The plaintiff was injured a very short distance from the rear exit of the hotel and the room where the plaintiff had stayed. The incident occurred as the plaintiff was traversing the unlit exterior walkway leading to the parking lot where her rental vehicle was parked. She stepped off the curb, slipped on ice, and fell on her left knee while approaching the driver’s side door of the rental vehicle. In excess of one-half of an inch of rain had fallen the night before and the low temperatures for the two previous nights created an icy surface in the parking lot. The plaintiff asserted the hotel was responsible because it failed to: 1) properly maintain the exterior lighting in the location where she fell; and 2) warn her of the unsafe condition outside the hotel before she fell. The evidence showed that there was minimal ambient light present at the time of the incident. There were no lighting fixtures on the exterior wall of the hotel adjacent to the exterior discharge door and the walkway provided no ground or pole lighting fixtures. “Shoebox” lighting fixtures in the adjacent parking lot provided the only lighting to aid the plaintiff as she left the hotel early in the morning before sunrise. A review of the building plans for the hotel provided details of the planned exterior lighting. While the parking lot lighting fixtures were in place as essentially depicted on the plan, the additional light fixtures along the walkway parallel to the rear parking area where the plaintiff fell were not present at the time of her fall. The plaintiff’s expert opined that hotel violated numerous provisions of the Massachusetts State Building Code when it: 1) failed to provide minimum required levels of illumination at the exterior exist discharge of the building; 2) removed required lighting equipment from the walkway areas; and/or 3) failed to maintain the lighting equipment in place in the walkway areas. The plaintiff also asserted that the employees of the hotel failed to warn the plaintiff of the icy conditions outside of the hotel before her fall. Even though the plaintiff had talked to the person at the front desk the night before, the hotel never warned her of the dangerous conditions that had developed outside. Finally, the plaintiff claimed that an outside landscaping company was contractually obligated to perform snow and ice remediation services at the hotel, but failed to do so. By its own admission, the landscaping contractor did not treat the icy conditions in the parking lot of the hotel precipitated by the previous day’s rainfall. At an agreed upon mediation session conducted at the time of the pretrial conference, the parties were able to resolve this case for a substantial six figure amount. The plaintiff was very satisfied with the result.