settlement

Published on: August 7, 2024

Nine people dead in devastating Palm Beach County SUV crash Monday night

Nine out of the 10 people involved in an SUV crash Sunday have died from their injuries, according to reporting from local news outlets.

The crash happened around 7:30 p.m. Monday on Hatton Highway in Palm Beach County when a 2023 Ford Explorer hit a curve, went off the road into the grass and hit a guardrail before overturning into a canal. Four people were pronounced dead at the scene and six were taken to the hospital where five of them later died. The remaining survivor, a 26-year-old man, remains hospitalized as of Tuesday.

Hatton Highway is a two-lane road that stretches across agricultural fields.

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 11, 2012

Injury to Canadian tourists caused by lack of illumination in private parking lot

By Leesfield & Partners

A landowner owes two duties to its business invitee: (1) he must use reasonable care to keep his premises in a reasonably safe condition; and (2) he must give the invitee warning of concealed perils which are or should have been known to him, and which are unknown to the invitee despite the exercise of due care. Furthermore, a landowner is liable for injuries caused by inadequate lighting in that the lighting failed to show the true size, shape, and height of curbing over which patron tripped.

Recently, Leesfield & Partners resolved a personal injury claim on behalf of a Canadian tourist who sustained massive facial injuries when he tripped and fell face-first on the corner of a sidewalk in Palm Beach County. The incident was caused by the lack of illumination, which at the time, should have been in operation.

A local ordinances provides in part that minimum-maintained lighting shall be provided from dusk until thirty (30) minutes after the termination of business each operating day. According to records from the ambulance company and testimonies gathered from the witnesses, the incident occurred well after duck, at a time where multiple lighting poles should have been in operation. There were not.

As a result, this Canadian tourist, who was unfamiliar with the premises at dusk, tripped over an unlit obstacle and fell forward. He sustained multiple fracture to his nose and orbital bone which have caused life-altering and debilitating changes in his life, and personality. This claim was recently resolved before trial for $262,500.

The aggressive representation by Leesfield & Parters allowed to establish multiple failures on behalf of the defendant owner including:

Failure to provide adequate lighting to the premises so as to ensure the safety of business invitees

Failure to inspect the premises regularly and to maintain the premises so as to protect business invitees from encountering dangerous and hazardous conditions

Failure to inspect the lighting and lighting poles of the premises regularly

Violation of multiple local ordinances and Florida Statutes requiring minimum0maintained lighting at certain hours of the day