Premises Liability

Published on: October 31, 2024

Leesfield & Partners Attorney Recovers $350,000 for Woman Who Shattered her Hip at a Florida Tourist Attraction

Evan Robinson, a Leesfield & Partners Trial Lawyer, secured a $350,000 settlement for a woman who shattered her hip as a result of a violent fall at a Monroe County tourist attraction.

Our client visited the popular tourist attraction while on vacation in the Keys with her husband. As the couple navigated the property’s narrow and crowded walkway, that was supposed to be flanked with gravel on both sides, our client stepped off the edge of the walkway and into a trench in an area where there was no gravel. As a result, our client lost her balance and fell violently onto the concrete ground, causing an injury that would forever alter her previously active lifestyle.

During the course of the litigation, Mr. Robinson learned that the walkway on which our client fell posed a dangerous hazard that was well-known to numerous employees and managers who worked at the attraction. Specifically, the frequent displacement of gravel caused by visitors constantly kicking it around resulted in the walkway repeatedly becoming unlevel. This recurring hazard presented such a serious danger that it required daily inspections and maintenance for over 16 years. In fact, every employee who worked at the attraction was instructed to keep watch over this area and bags of additional gravel were kept on site so that maintenance personnel could re-level the walkway when the gravel was displaced.

Published on: September 6, 2024

Leesfield & Partners secured over $1.8 million for a man left with debilitating pain after a fall at a Florida vacation rental

By Leesfield & Partners

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.”

Published on: July 18, 2024

‘Nearly as slippery as ice:’ Leesfield & Partners secures a $300,000 settlement for a client who suffered a violent fall at a Florida resort

By Leesfield & Partners

Leesfield & Partners attorneys, including Partner, Justin B. Shapiro, and Trial Lawyer, Evan Robinson, recently secured a $300,000 settlement for a client who suffered a traumatic fall at a Florida resort, causing him to shatter his wrist so severely it required painful reconstructive surgery with the implantation of metal hardware.

Our client fell in the bathroom of the resort’s main pool area, which employees described as being “constantly wet” from guests tracking in water from nearby showers, pools and hot tubs. Although a drain in the bathroom floor should have allowed this water to pass through it, the drain was not functioning properly on the day of our client’s fall, leaving a pool of dirty water that created dangerous, wet conditions. To make matters worse, the resort installed tiles in the bathroom that were so smooth and slippery when wet that our expert engineer who examined and tested the tiles described them as being “nearly as slippery as ice.”

On the day of our client’s fall, the bathroom floor was soaked with dirty water and littered with wet toilet paper and towels. The fall resulted in our client shattering his wrist, requiring him to undergo reconstructive surgery and the installation of metal hardware. Moreover, as a result of his fall, our client was diagnosed with De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis Syndrome, a condition that causes extreme pain and dysfunction due to nerve damage in the hand and wrist.

Published on: June 25, 2024

Leesfield & Partners attorneys settle case of woman with ‘severe and gruesome’ injuries after a fall at a townhome community

By Leesfield & Partners

Trial Attorney and Partner, Justin B. Shapiro, recently resolved a case involving a woman who fell on an unstable concrete stepping stone, causing her to lose her balance and shatter her ankle in three places.

The unstable slab was part of a walkway in a common area of the townhome community where the woman was injured. It was the responsibility of the community association to oversee any modifications to the area. In fact, under the community’s association declarations, anyone who was not a part of the community’s staff or a groundskeeper directed to change a certain area was barred from making any repairs or modifications. As a result of her fall, three bones in her ankle were shattered and displaced, categorizing the incident as the “most severe and gruesome ankle fracture known to medicine,” according to official court documents.

Before her devastating fall, the woman was an active community member, a devoted wife and mother, and a beloved special needs teacher for high school students. Following the incident, the daily 2-mile walks she and her husband used to take were impossible as was interacting with her students or standing for long periods in her classroom.

Published on: September 13, 2021

Gas tank explosion at Seminole Classic Casino

By Leesfield & Partners

casino-594157_640-300x200 Earlier today, an explosion happened at the Seminole Classic Casino in Hollywood, FL. The floor of the casino was open to patrons and workers were performing maintenance checks of the casino’s fire suppression systems. The early reports describe that the workers were checking an area of the casino with quite a lot of equipment. Once the check was over for one of the gas tanks used to suppress fire ruptured. An explosion followed, sending debris to the main casino floor where patrons were located. In all, 26 people were injured in the event, 6 of which were transported to the hospital with significant injuries.

Partners Thomas Scolaro and Justin Shapiro recently represented a client involved in a similar case where an explosion at a home caused significant burn and orthopedic injuries to the resident resulting in a 6-figure settlement. In another matter, Ira Leesfield and Thomas Scolaro represented an employee who became injured while performing maintenance at a large international outlet store. The store’s negligence caused the worker to fall 10 feet without notice and sustain catastrophic injuries.

In the Seminole Classic Casino explosion, several claims will have to be brought forward not only to compensate the victims, and to make certain that such event never occurs again. The question of tribal immunity will be discussed in the coming weeks and months, especially if one or more of the hospitalized victims sustained catastrophic injuries.

Published on: February 1, 2021

‘The Lie That Doomed This Defendant’: Miami Attorneys Land $2 Million Settlement Over Explosion

By Leesfield & Partners

When a Cape Coral man was left severely injured in an explosion on his outdoor patio because someone had accidentally left a gas grill turned on, his attorneys felt all signs pointed to a cleaning company that had stopped by the day before.

Leesfield & Partners, the plaintiff’s attorneys, had a problem, though. No direct evidence actually proved that a cleaning service staff member had been negligent — meaning, technically, it could have been anyone. The premises liability lawsuit that ensued ultimately hinged on a single deposition, as Leesfield & Partners found one witness’s lie boxed the defendant into settling the claims for its $2 million insurance policy limit.

Leesfield & Partners represented plaintiff James Dastra. He hired Sparkle and Shine Cleaning Service of SWFL LLC to professionally clean his house about twice a month, including his propane grill on the patio. Dastra’s complaint claimed their last visit put him in serious danger, alleging one cleaner caused highly-flammable propane to leak and build up by inadvertently leaving a burner knob switched on after cleaning it.

Published on: June 27, 2018

Site Inspections in Premises Liability Cases: Timing is Crucial… Get in Immediately!

By Leesfield & Partners

Experienced personal injury lawyers know all too well that dangerous conditions exist all around us as soon as we leave our home. Over the past four decades, Leesfield & Partners’s trial attorneys have seen unsuspecting members of the public suffer horrific injuries as a result of just about every conceivable construction defect, building code violation, and failure to use the slightest degree of care in maintaining premises.

In many premises liability cases, inspection of the injury location is the defining moment of the case. The attorney brings his or her wealth of experience to the scene to evaluate the conditions, and equally important, the retained experts conduct their scientific testing. The vast majority of trial lawyers appreciate the importance of site inspections; however, the need to conduct inspections immediately is often lost. Trial lawyers must do everything possible to secure their inspection as quickly as possible, which may dictate the strategy of their representation. In many cases, the failure to conduct an immediate inspection may jeopardize crucial evidence or even doom the case altogether.

IMG_3525_resize-300x200 Take for example a case our law firm recently resolved involving a negligently maintained bathtub surface at a Days Inn hotel. Our client turned on the water, took one step onto the tub surface, and slipped immediately, resulting in a significant hip fracture. Our client reported to us that the shower surface was so slippery it felt like she stepped onto ice. She explained that the anti-slip coating on the surface appeared to be excessively worn and neglected. By the time the client contacted us, weeks had already passed, and the bathtub surface remained in service for other guests. Under the law, we would not be able to arrange an expert inspection of the tub until a lawsuit was filed. Accordingly, we refused to delay by trying to resolve the case without litigation. We immediately filed our lawsuit and, with the lawsuit, served on the hotel a Notice of Inspection for the earliest possible date the rules of procedure allowed. Later, when the hotel’s attorneys asked to postpone the unilaterally scheduled inspection, we respectfully declined in the interest of our client. The inspection proceeded just weeks after we were retained, and our expert engineer confirmed the hotel’s failure to comply with industry standards for slip resistance. The most crucial evidence in the case was preserved, and the hotel ultimately settled with our client for $675,000. Had we not aggressively pursued an immediate inspection, the hotel would have had a valid argument that a later inspection would not be representative of the conditions at the time of our client’s fall due to “months and months” of continued wear and tear by continued use, scrubbing, cleaning solutions, and so on.

Published on: June 16, 2016

Walt Disney World 100% Liable for Creating Zone of Risk in Alligator Attack

By Leesfield & Partners

On Wednesday, a 17-hour search effort concluded after divers found the body of a 2-year-old boy who had been snatched by an alligator right in front of his dad. The wild animal attacked Lane Graves who had been playing around in the water of the Seven Seas Lagoon at the Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa at around 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday night.

Catastrophic unavoidable accidents occur every day all across the country, but when someone or some entity’s negligence causes a catastrophe, it no longer is an accident, and it surely was avoidable.

What do we know about the Seven Seas Lagoon where the incident occurred?

Published on: March 25, 2016

The importance of photographs in premises liability cases

By Leesfield & Partners

They say “a picture is worth a thousand words.” As we have seen in many of our premises liability cases, pictures can be worth far more. When our clients are severely injured as a result of dangerous or defective premises, their health is understandably their primary focus. Pain and shock take over. An ambulance is often called to rush the victims away from the scene for medical evaluation. The last thing on their mind is preserving evidence by taking photographs of the dangerous condition. Who can blame them?

Our firm recently handled a case that demonstrated just how important it is to photograph the scene after an injury. Our client was leaving a fast food restaurant when she slipped while walking down an outdoor staircase. She fell down several stairs to the ground and suffered severe injuries, requiring multiple surgeries. When her husband met her in the emergency room shortly after the incident, she explained that her foot slipped off a stair that felt “slimy” and “oily.” Her husband drove to the scene of the incident shortly thereafter and noticed that the stairs were covered in thick layers of mold and mildew, which are known to be extremely slippery on walking surfaces. He also noticed the restaurant employees preparing to scrub the staircase with soap and industrial brushes in response to his wife’s fall. He immediately took out his cell phone and snapped several photographs of the filthy staircase before it was scrubbed.

Months later, the general manager of the restaurant was shown these photographs at her deposition. She had no choice but to admit that the staircase was unacceptable and unsafe for guests. This allowed our firm to secure a settlement that covered 100% of her medical expenses and lost wages, and a substantial additional sum for her pain and suffering. Had her husband not taken those photographs, it would have been far more difficult to prove the extent of this hazard, or that the hazard existed at all.

Published on: October 2, 2015

Explosion in Sunny Isles Beach caused by Gas Leak in Boiler Room

By Leesfield & Partners

An explosion took place this afternoon in Sunny Isles Beach. Early reports mention a gas leak in the boiler room of a high rise condo was responsible for the damages. As many as 6 people have been reported injured on site, and off site, including a person who was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Boiler rooms require extensive and appropriate maintenance in order to avoid potential devastating consequences to members of the public and residents. Natural gas is one of the most widely used fuels for heating commercial and industrial properties. The dangers of gas leaks is they can go undetected for a significant period of time, and they present a clear and present explosive risk leading to structural damage, or worse, the loss of life.

A proper and adequate maintenance plan must be in effect to prevent against leaks and any other types of dangers that boiler rooms present. An automatic gas detection system will provide early warning of a gas release during unmanned periods.