Premises Liability

$600,000 RECOVERY – Plaintiff overnight guest falls down approximately 14 steps because of allegedly dangerous stairway leading to basement – Skull fracture and severe cognitive deficits – Premises rented by defendant from co-defendant homeowners association – Failure to warn – Inward opening of basement door forces plaintiff to turn around to begin descending basement stairs – Premises “Grandfathered” from current code prohibiting such design – Defendant would have pointed to extensive alcohol consumption by plaintiff earlier in evening.

Monmouth County

The plaintiff in her mid-20s, who was planning to stay overnight in the defendant renter’s basement, contended that the premises was highly dangerous and that no warnings were provided about the basement stairs. The plaintiff maintained that since the door leading to the stairway opened inward, the plaintiff was required to turn around before beginning to descend, that the risk of losing her balance was heightened by the reduction in tread width caused by such a need, and that she fell approximately 14 steps. The plaintiff’s engineer concluded that the stairway was dangerous and would have been in violation of the code if presently built. The older building was “grandfathered” from such code provisions. The defendants contended that the cause of the incident was the extensive alcohol consumption of the plaintiff earlier in the evening. The defendants would have pointed out that the plaintiff drank at a concert and a tavern before having a final glass of wine at the defendant’s home and that the incident occurred a short time later. The plaintiff would have maintained that blood testing at the hospital correlated to a BAC of .24. The plaintiff had moved to exclude such results, pointing to the lab tech’s deposition in which he indicated that because of chain of custody issues, he could not state with 100 percent confidence that it was the plaintiff’s blood that was tested. The defendants countered that the records were more than sufficient in this civil case to justify admissibility of this evidence. The plaintiff suffered a skull fracture and required surgical intervention to relive the pressure on the brain. The plaintiff maintained that she will nonetheless suffer severe cognitive deficits largely involving concentration and short-term memory.

The defendants had $1,000,000 in primary coverage. The case settled for $600,000 after mediation before Judge Uhrmacher and before any ruling on the motion to exclude the BAC results.

Reference

Pltf: Goodman. Docket no.: _______________; 06-13. Attorney for Plaintiff, Franks S. Gaudio, The Law Office of Miller & Gaudio PC in Red Bank.