"The Case of the Dark Ramp Dentist"

Dec 21, 2014

OUTCOME: The case eventually settled for c.$650,000.00. There was an issue as to whether she should have come back up the ramp rather than chance it by walking around the cone. Best to settle rather than take a chance in front of a jury.

My client went to a new dentist on the morning of the first day of winter, the darkest day of the year. She entered through the front door because a ramp was being constructed onto the rear of the buil ... ding. They sent her home to take antibiotics before they could work on her teeth. She came back later that day, after the sun went down, in the pouring rain. After her procedure the staff told her they had locked up for the day so she had to exit through the back door. She went out the back, realized she was on the ramp being built, and proceeded to inch her way down to the parking lot. When she got to the bottom of the ramp she found it to be blocked by an orange construction cone. Not knowing what else to do, she stepped around the cone to what she thought was asphalt. Instead, it was dark-colored mulch. Her leg sank in to the mulch, she fell forward, and broke her leg in 17 places. She was in the hospital for 3 weeks and underwent multiple surgeries and procedures. She filed a personal injury suit against the dentist and the owner of the building. She gave her deposition from a wheelchair. She had a hospital bed installed in her living room.