Justin B. Shapiro, a Partner and Trial Lawyer with Leesfield & Partners, secured a $1,824,327 record settlement for a client whose fall left his pelvic bone so shattered doctors said the fragments resembled “bread crumbs.”
In an article published in the Daily Business Review, Mr. Shapiro told reporters that within the first hour of speaking with this client he could tell the man was a wonderful person and decided to take on the case, which two law firms had already rejected, because “when we dig in, we don’t stop until our client is made whole.”
“We turned an enormously challenging case into a seven-figure recovery,” he said. “I’m proud to say that I don’t know of any settlement or verdict in Florida larger than this for a fall in a shower.”
What Happened?
The man was staying at the Florida rental property with his wife and children while on vacation from out of state. The man was using the stand-alone tub in the rental unit until three days into their stay when he decided to use the shower in the primary bathroom. The tiles inside the shower did not have texture or slip-resistant features leaving it “so smooth and slippery it was all but certain to result in injury,” attorneys with the firm said in court documents.
An expert engineer who examined the case said that the tiles were so perilous they would be “inappropriate for use on any flooring, much less a shower floor.” The tiles are intended to be used as decorative finishes on walls, an error that would have been caught by a state inspector had the owners of the property not been renting out the unit illegally, flouting state requirements and licenses. Additionally, there were no bathmats, or grab bars inside the primary bathroom where the man fell despite the property owner being indisputably aware of the potential hazard as was evident in the pre-installed rubber shower mats and anti-slip texture on the tub and other shower units inside the rental.
Following his agonizing fall, medical staff taking care of our client determined that he would need surgery and inserted titanium plates and metal screws meant to repair his pelvis which had been crushed so horrifically that he was told the fractures in his hip socket resembled “bread crumbs.” The surgery took nine hours to complete.
A year after the violent fall and subsequent surgery, the man continued to experience excruciating pain in his right hip and could only walk with the help of a cane. Doctors determined that the man’s injuries left him at least 18% permanently impaired, a rate that will only increase as time goes on. He has been unable to return to his work as a maintenance technician.
Before the accident, our client took great joy in coaching his daughter’s softball team, hiking, camping, and regular fishing trips with his family. Those activities are next to impossible to enjoy today. Today, our client remains in constant pain and his mental health has been greatly affected as a result of this incident.
Leesfield & Partners
Slip and fall cases are among some of the most common practice areas for personal injury attorneys, nationwide. Leesfield & Partners has represented thousands of clients over its 48 years of practice in Florida.
Property owners are liable for injuries sustained in slip and fall incidents if it can be proved that their negligence, in either failing to warn a visitor of a potential hazard or failing to upkeep the property in safe conditions, was the cause of the incident. While seemingly simple, slips and falls can result in severe, dangerous and long-lasting injuries. Leesfield & Partners attorneys have handled cases where clients have sustained excruciating and gruesome fractures, and brain and spinal cord injuries due to a fall.
One case handled by Evan Robinson, a Trial Lawyer with the firm, involved a man who fell in a Florida resort bathroom that was left in such a state of disarray it allowed the already perilous bathroom tiles to become “as slippery as ice.” The bathroom, which was near the resort’s main pool, was flooded with dirty water, towels and toilet paper. A drain in the floor was either clogged or not functioning properly the day of the man’s fall, leaving water trailing in from swimmers using the restroom and from nearby showers to flood the area. The man shattered his wrist and required painful reconstructive surgery. He was later diagnosed with De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis Syndrome, a condition that causes extreme pain and dysfunction due to nerve damage in the hand and wrist, as a result of his fall.
Mr. Robinson secured a $300,000 settlement amount for the man in that case.
Mr. Shapiro also handled the case of a mother and special education teacher who fell after stepping on an unstable pavement stone at a Florida townhome community. The woman, who was an avid walker before the incident, shattered her ankle in three places. The damage to her ankle was categorized as one of the “most severe and gruesome ankle fracture known to medicine.”
A $525,000 settlement was secured for the injured woman in that case.