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Property owners are responsible for ensuring that their property is safe for the public. They cannot leave ice built up on a sidewalk, keep leaky equipment in use as water puddles on the floor, or fail to repair broken parking lot pavements. When someone gets hurt because a property owner does not live up to that responsibility, the attorneys of Raynes McCarty are there to help.
Sometimes proving responsibility is straightforward. Other times, we call upon experts in accident reconstruction, biomechanics, metallurgy, or building maintenance and design. We have been asked to represent clients whose accidents involved escalators and elevators, building and walkway collapses, the tipping over of apartment stoves, electrical safety, and campgrounds. Examples of our premises liability cases include:
- $35,000,000 in Lifetime Benefits In Stove Tipover Accident
An apartment stove tipped over when a five-year-old boy stood
on its open door while trying to reach a pot. The pot of scalding
water toppled off the stove, spilled onto the boy, and severely
burned his groin and upper thighs. The landlord had ignored Philadelphia's
building code, which requires every apartment stove to be anchored
to the floor at the back of the stove. The stove manufacturer
violated the standards for the home appliance industry when it
failed to provide essential safety information. Martin K. Brigham's
role as lead trial counsel for the boy in his claim against the
landlord and the stove manufacturer was featured as a Spotlight
case in ATLA's Law Reporter. Click
here to read the article.
- "Largest Pre-Trial Recovery in Delaware History" Auto
racing fans were directed by the race track owner to set up their
RV's directly under an unlit, unmarked, uninsulated 69,000 volt
high power line. Following the track's suggestion to fly the flag
of their favorite race team, a family put up a tall flagpole.
When the wind shifted, the pole contacted the power line, causing
an electrical arc that killed two and catastrophically injured
three others. Martin K. Brigham was lead trial counsel for all
of the families in the case that was described by defense counsel
as the largest pre-trial personal injury recovery in the state's
history.
- $10,340,000 Recovery in Addition to Prior Confidential Settlement
Lucent Technology's electricians certified to a crew of outside
contractors that it was safe to enter a "de-energized" piece of
electrical equipment. The assurance was false, the equipment had
12,470 volts flowing through it, and one of the contractor employees
suffered severe electrical burns. The non-confidential portion
of the settlement exceeded $10,000,000. Click
here to read more about our recoveries for burn survivors.
- $5,000,000 Settlement for Back Injury from Fall in Driveway Marta
stepped in a hole in her mother's driveway, a hole her mother
had known about for some time but of which Marta was unaware. She
wrenched her back, was taken to the emergency room, but was not
diagnosed with an emergent medical condition that required immediate
treatment. A Raynes McCarty team structured a settlement with
Marta's mother's homeowner's insurance carrier guaranteeing a
substantial recovery, preserved the medical malpractice claims,
and secured a combined settlement in excess of $5 million from
the homeowner's insurance policy and the medical providers.
See Medical Malpractice
for more information.
- $4,000,000 Settlement for Inadequate Security at Movie Theater
A young man attended the premiere of a controversial movie about
gang violence. After the show, he was shot in the parking lot
of the theater by an unidentified assailant, resulting in serious
injuries. Suit was filed against the shopping mall where the theater
was located and against the national theater chain. One of our
attorneys argued that violence after the movie was predictable
and would have been prevented by adequate security. When discovery
revealed a nationwide pattern of violence accompanying late night
premieres of such movies, defendants agreed to pay a confidential
settlement totaling $4 million.
- Confidential Seven-Figure Recovery for Slip on Ice Althea
was dropping her young son off at a day care center located on
federal property. After stepping out of her car, she immediately
noticed that the parking lot was a sheet of ice. She had to confront
the hazard to drop her child off at school and again to return
to her car to drive to work. She slipped and fell on the ice,
injuring her spinal cord, and now suffers from permanent neurological
problems. Attorney Stephen Raynes conducted an exhaustive investigation
and discovered that the federal government had contracted with
private contractors, who had run out of salt the morning of the
accident and had failed to salt the accident area. A lawsuit was
brought against the private contractors, and after three days
of trial in which the federal government representative testified
for Althea, the case settled for a confidential amount.
- Confidential Multimillion Dollar Settlement for Fall Down
Stairs A highly successful tavern expanded its premises to
the second floor of an old building that had not been built to
modern codes. The tavern located the men's room at the top of
a stairway, opening onto a landing. A patron lost his balance
when exiting and pitched down the stairway, suffering spinal injuries.
After pretrial discovery revealed that the renovations were performed
without complete disclosure to city officials, and that the property
manager had employed a relative who is an architect to do substandard
design drawings, the defendants entered into a confidential, multimillion
dollar settlement.
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