Practice Area Category: Premises Liability
Two boys disfigured by burns due to improper maintenance of apartment.
On August 16, 2013, a young girl and her family were on the department store’s escalators when her right foot became entrapped and swallowed by the top of the escalator stair. After freeing her leg, emergency personnel transported the child to Hackensack University Medical Center. While there, a team of specialists treated her during her 7 week hospitalization.
The girl had a total of 22 procedures to save her foot from amputation and completely rebuild it. She received skin and muscle grafts from other parts of her body, and endured lung and kidney failure from all of the trauma. The child remained hospitalized for almost 3 months, followed by years of physical therapy.
The escalator was found to be outdated and not properly taken care of. There had been numerous incidents involving the escalator in the two years before the child’s injury, where customers’ shoes had been caught in the mechanism. A state-mandated inspection of the escalator originally scheduled in March 2013 had been canceled by the department store and never rescheduled. The suit was filed against the department store, as well as the maintenance company who oversaw the safety of the escalators. It was settled for $15,000,000 by Samuel L. Davis.
Disclaimer: Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances
A college student tripped and fell on a hazardous platform at a New York subway station, causing him to land on the tracks and subsequently lose both of his legs. Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein proved that the transit and transport authorities were negligent in failing to properly maintain the platform, securing the injured student a $9 million dollar settlement.
Our client was on his way to work when the heel of his foot got caught in a gap of concrete on the train platform. He lost his balance and fell onto the train tracks. A minute later, the unconscious student was hit by the oncoming train. The New York City Police Department responded to the scene. In their police investigation, they questioned the train conductor, who stated that he saw the college student on the tracks as he pulled up to the station but could not stop in time to avoid him. Our client was found under the fifth car of the ten-car train.
An ambulance took him to a nearby New York hospital, where he remained for five weeks. Our client was then moved to inpatient physical therapy for a month. Due to the accident, he had both legs amputated and underwent reconstruction surgery in his finger—which was completely dislocated after the accident. He also had a t-shaped laceration on the back of his head. However, despite recovering and getting prosthetic legs, our client continuously suffered bilateral phantom leg pain, bilateral stump pain, frequent low back pain, fatigue, and headaches.
Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein retained an engineering expert to determine the cause of the accident. After an investigation into the hazardous platform, the engineer concluded that the size, shape, and dimensions of the defect in the train platform should have classified it as a known pedestrian trip and fall hazard. Further, there were similar defects around the platform that had been painted over instead of repaired. The expert concluded that the platform had a defect in the edge of the platform which should have been repaired.
Do you or someone you know have similar injuries or circumstances to this one? Our dedicated legal team of train accident attorneys is here to help. Call now for a free case evaluation or reach out online and we’ll call you back.
Medical Glossary:
Amputated: cut off a limb by surgical operation
Anxiety: a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome
Bilateral: having on or affecting both sides
Depression: a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act
Laceration: a deep cut in the skin
Phantom Pain: often painful sensation of the presence of a limb that has been amputated
Stump Pain: a type of pain felt in the part of the limb that remains after an amputation
Two sisters who survived a deadly house fire. The fire was alleged to have started near a thirty-year old space heater used to heat the apartment being rented by the family. At the time of the fire, the sisters were six and eight years old. The youngest sister suffered significant burns requiring numerous surgeries. The burns caused permanent scarring to her face and body, limited her ability to obtain meaningful employment, and pose a variety of future health risks. The sisters also lost their mother and brother in the fire. The sisters, now adults, were forced to live with relatives or in foster homes for the majority of their childhood.
A security officer from New Jersey tripped and fell on a New York City sidewalk under construction, injuring his right arm. Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein proved that the property owner and construction contractor were negligent in failing to properly maintain a safe construction site and secured a $3 million dollar settlement.
The security officer walked under scaffolding surrounding a sidewalk where cobblestone was being installed. He tripped and fell off the curb, landing on his right elbow.
Our client went to the hospital emergency department where he was treated and released. He sustained an elbow fracture and was prescribed pain medicine. He followed up with an orthopedic surgeon who ordered an MRI, which showed an effusion, but no other abnormalities. Our client underwent an ulnar nerve transposition subcutaneous elbow surgery and physical therapy for five months. In addition, he underwent two stellate ganglion blocks, and platelet plasma injections for right arm nerve transposition.
Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein and his team retained medical experts that concluded, amongst his other injuries, that our client suffered from complex regional pain syndrome (previously known as RSD), ulnar neuropathy, and epicondylitis causally related to the fall.
The husband and father continued to suffer pain in his right arm and limitations in his hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder. He is limited in his activities of daily living and helping to care for his two children.
Steven Cohen, the Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., Chairman of the Worker’s Compensation Section, filed an accompanying worker’s compensation claim and successfully handled that case separately.
Do you or someone you know have similar injuries or circumstances to this one? Our dedicated legal team of over 25 attorneys is here to help. Call now for a free case evaluation or reach out online and we’ll call you back.
Medical Glossary:
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: A broad term describing excess and prolonged pain and inflammation that follows an injury to an arm or leg
Depression: a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act
Effusion: an escape of fluid into a body cavity
Epicondylitis: a painful inflammation of tendons surrounding an epicondyle—the area surrounding a bone
MRI: magnetic resonance imaging; a medical examination that obtains an image of the organs and tissues in your body
Platelet Plasma Injection: injections of a concentration of a patient’s own platelets to accelerate the healing of injured tendons, ligaments, muscles, and joints
Stellate Ganglion Block: an injection of local anesthetic into the front of the neck; used to diagnose the cause of pain in the face, head, arms, and chest
Subcutaneous Ulnar Nerve Transposition: a surgical treatment for ulnar neuropathy at the elbow; moving the ulnar nerve to a position where it is not irritated or pinched
Ulnar Nerve: a large, superficial nerve of the arm that passes around the elbow in a groove between the bones
Ulnar Neuropathy: a disorder involving the ulnar nerve; causes numbness
A New Jersey woman tripped and fell on exposed steel rebar while walking into her place of employment. Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein represented the woman and showed that the owner that managed the company and its engineering and maintenance companies were negligent in failing to properly maintain the parking lot in a safe condition. Our client suffered injuries to her back, leg, and neck and was subsequently paid $2.915 million dollars.
The woman parked her car on the second floor of the garage in a commercial building where she worked. After she got out of her car, she fell unexpectedly, landing on the nearby curb. Upon inspection, she realized that she tripped over exposed rebar—a set of thin, hard wires protruding from a broken, concrete wheel stop. Our client then continued into the building, where she filed an incident.
Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein—along with other members of the firm’s team of New Jersey and New York premises liability lawyers—retained a consulting engineer and accident reconstruction expert who concluded that the employer did not follow the relevant standards concerning pedestrian safety. Further, the expert concluded that the concrete wheel stop should have been painted with a warning sign or hazard line painting. The exposed rebar created an even more dangerous condition. They failed to inspect and maintain their car stops.
As a result of the fall, our client suffered injuries to her back, knees, and neck. Her back suffered disc bulges at L2-L3 and L4-L5; disc herniations at L2-L3 and L3-L4; disc protrusion at L5-S1; and multilevel facet arthropathy.
As a result of these injuries, she had several operations and now takes daily medication to control her pain. To treat the herniated discs in her spine, the woman’s back surgeries included laminectomies to the L2-L3 and L4-L5 disc bulges, posterolateral fusion surgery to her lumbar spine at L2-L3, and transforaminal decompression of the left lateral and foraminal disc herniation of the L3-L4. Despite these corrective procedures, the fall affected the woman’s ability to commute to work and continue her job.
The full identities of the parties to this premises liability settlement are subject to a partial qualified confidentiality agreement. Do you or someone you know have similar injuries or circumstances to this one? Our dedicated legal team of over 25 attorneys is here to help. Call now for a free case evaluation or reach out online and we’ll call you back.
Medical Glossary:
Anxiety: a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome
Depression: a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act
Disc Bulge: a condition in which the inner portion of a spinal disc remains contained in the outer portion of a spinal disc
Disc Herniation: a portion of the disc, which acts as a shock absorber for the spinal bones, is pushed into the spinal canal
Disc Protrusion: a type of disc herniation
Facet Arthropathy: a degenerative condition that affects the spine
Lumbar Spine: the lower back; consists of five bones
Laminectomies: a surgical operation to remove the back of one or more vertebrae, usually to give access to the spinal cord or to relieve pressure on nerves
Posterolateral fusion: a surgical procedure used to treat problems with spinal instability
Transforaminal Decompression: most commonly used to refer to a surgical procedure to alleviate pain in the spine
A car salesman slipped and fell on a piece of unsecured cardboard put in place by construction workers at his place of employment, leading to knee and back injuries. Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein proved that the property lessee and it’s two contracted construction companies were negligent in the ownership, supervision, and control of the construction site, and secured a $2,897,500 settlement.
Our client worked on the second floor of a New York car dealership that was under renovation. Employees were forced to exit only through a rear door. Construction workers turned off the lights on the first floor after they left the building. On the day of the incident, our client left the well-lit second floor to exit the building, finding himself in pitch-black on the first floor. Realizing the exit door was locked, he found his way to the side door, and in the process, slipped on a piece of unsecured cardboard, tripped over a nearby hazard and fell. He was taken to a local hospital by ambulance.
Our client suffered injuries to his knee and back, including a quadriceps tendon rupture in his left knee, which required surgery and kept him in the hospital for over a week. About a year later, that same left knee gave out, causing our client to fall and suffer the same injury in his right knee. He once again underwent surgery and remained in the hospital for over a week. The fall also left him with back pain and a herniated disc at L5-S1 and developed cauda equine syndrome, while he was treated with physical therapy and epidural steroid injections to the spine. The pain continued to intensify, and our client underwent an L5-S1 hemilaminectomy and discectomy. Post-surgery, he continued to experience pain and was advised to continue to seek treatment.
Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein and his team of New York premises liability attorneys retained both a vocational and an economics expert to determine our client’s future financial losses. The vocational expert assessed his work simulations results, age, college education, and past work experience, concluding that he was unable to perform past relevant work, transfer his skills to other types of occupations, or find suitable employment. The economics expert evaluated our client’s past income and determined his future dollar losses.
Economists and employability experts are commonly used in cases to determine future lost wages and the value of a lost career due to an injury.
Do you or someone you know have similar injuries or circumstances to this one? Our dedicated legal team of over 25 attorneys is here to help. Call now for a free case evaluation or reach out online and we’ll call you back.
Medical Glossary:
Cauda Equine Syndrome: a rare disorder that usually is a surgical emergency; something compresses on the spinal nerve roots that require fast treatment to prevent lasting damage
Epidural Steroid Injections: a minimally invasive procedure that can relieve neck, arm, back and leg pain; delivers steroids via a needle
Hemi-Laminectomy Discectomy: a surgical operation where parts of spinal bones are removed
Herniated Disc: a portion of the disc, which acts as a shock absorber for the spinal bones, is pushed into the spinal canal
Quadriceps Tendon Rupture: an injury that occurs when the tendon that attaches the quadriceps muscle to the kneecap is partially or completely torn
A New Jersey woman was injured when she tripped on a raised slab of concrete outside of her place of employment. Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein successfully proved that the building owner negligently failed to properly maintain the surrounding sidewalk areas and resolved the case for $1.675 million dollar settlement.
When walking back into the entrance after a break, our client’s shoe caught on a raised paver, causing her to fall and hit the left side of her head, left knee, and left shoulder on the ground. An incident report was filed.
Our client’s injuries included multiple herniated discs in her back and a knee injury. Post-accident, she suffered from back spasms, fatigue, headaches, difficulty sleeping due to pain, a constant feeling of “pins and needles” and swelling in her knee. These injuries caused the woman to walk with the assistance of a cane after the fall. Our client also underwent various forms of treatment, which included multiple surgical procedures to her spine.
Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein and his team of expert premises liability lawyers questioned the property manager during pre-trial depositions, who testified that the pavers needed to be reset before the accident occurred. The company had received prior complaints concerning wobbly and uplifted pavers throughout the area. Partner Marc C. Saperstein also hired an engineering expert who concluded that the raised edge—created by exposure to the elements, water seepage, and negligent or nonexistent maintenance—made unsafe conditions for pedestrians.
After the incident, the company signed a million-dollar contract to fix the surrounding walkway. Repairs made after an accident are legally known as “subsequent remedial measures.” In general, subsequent remedial measures are not permitted to be mentioned at trial to prove negligence but may be mentioned to prove control and ownership over an unsafe area or condition.
Do you or someone you know have similar injuries or circumstances to this one? Our dedicated legal team of over 25 attorneys is here to help. Call now for a free case evaluation or reach out online and we’ll call you back.
Medical Glossary:
Arthroscopic Surgery: a minimally invasive procedure that uses a camera to look within a joint rather than opening it completely
Cognitive Injuries: an injury to the part of the brain relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity
Epidural Steroid Injections: a minimally invasive procedure that can relieve neck, arm, back and leg pain; delivers steroids via a needle
Herniated Discs: a portion of the disc, which acts as a shock absorber for the spinal bones, is pushed into the spinal canal
Laminectomies: a surgical operation to remove the back of one or more vertebrae, usually to give access to the spinal cord or to relieve pressure on nerves
Spinal Fusions: surgery to permanently connect two or more vertebrae in the spine, eliminating motion between them
Escalator related hand injury to child requiring reconstructive surgery.
A New Jersey client slipped in a movie theatre bathroom stall, injuring her back. After Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein proved that the movie theatre negligently failed to properly maintain the bathroom floor, the woman was awarded a $1.11 million dollar settlement.
Our client walked into a bathroom stall of the New Jersey movie theatre when her foot slipped on a “slimy” substance. As she fell, her foot slid under the stall, injuring her back in the process.
Our client suffered injuries to both her back and neck, including cervical disc herniations at C4-C5, C5-C6, and C6-C7 which flattened parts of the spine—the dural sac and the ventral surface of the cervical spinal cord—causing significant pain. As a result of her injuries, the woman suffered from severe cervicogenic migraines, upper back pain, neck pain, and lost range of motion in her neck and back. She underwent multiple epidural steroid injections to the spine, cervical facet injections, numerous MRIs, and a cervical discectomy.
Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C., partner Marc C. Saperstein and his team of Certified Civil Trial Attorneys retained an engineering expert to determine the cause of the fall. Although the movie theatre had taken remedial action to fix the slippery floor problem by the time of the inspection, the expert concluded that the wet substance present on the floor—which was caused by the tile floor’s surface treatment and the soaps used by the movie theatre—created an unsafe condition for movie theatre patrons. The lack of “wet floor signs” added to this danger.
Our client’s life significantly changed because of her injuries. She could no longer work and was rendered totally disabled. The movie theatre’s negligence impaired our client’s ability to fully function as a wife, mother, and homemaker.
Partner Marc C. Saperstein also represented the woman’s husband in a “loss of consortium claim,” designed to compensate a spouse of an injury victim for their loss due to their spouse’s injuries.
Do you or someone you know have similar injuries or circumstances to this one? Our dedicated legal team of over 25 attorneys is here to help. Call now for a free case evaluation or reach out online and we’ll call you back.
Medical Glossary:
Cervical Discectomy: A surgery to remove a herniated or degenerative disc in the neck
Cervical Facet Injections: an anesthetic and steroid are injected into joints in the neck
Cervicogenic Migraine: Pain perceived as occurring in a part of the body perceived in the head from a source in the neck
Disc Herniation: a portion of the disc, which acts as a shock absorber for the spinal bones, is pushed into the spinal canal
Dural Sac: the sac that encases the spinal cord within the bony structure of the spine
Epidural Steroid Injections: a minimally invasive procedure that can relieve neck, arm, back and leg pain; delivers steroids via a needle
MRI: magnetic resonance imaging; a medical examination that obtains an image of the organs and tissues in your body
Ventral Surface: the front of the body; includes the chest, abdomen, shins, balms, and soles