A Philadelphia sheriff’s deputy who got paralyzed in a courthouse elevator crash case in 2016 was awarded $20.5 million.
He was working as a sergeant in the Sheriff's Office when the incident occurred on August 4, 2016. He was inside an employee elevator at the Criminal Justice Center at 13th and Filbert Street, when the elevator rocketed out of the 15th-floor’s ceiling and smashed into an equipment room. The crash left him with severe injuries to his head, rib, vertebrae, and chest, and he was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital in a critical condition.
The victim and his wife filed a lawsuit in January 2017 claiming negligence, improper elevator maintenance, and repair for the unfortunate incident. The defendants named in the lawsuit were the Philadelphia Municipal Authority, the U.S. Facilities Inc., ThyssenKrupp Elevator Corp., and Schindler Elevator Corp. Additional defendants added through amended complaints were Otis Elevator Co. of Farmington, Conn., and Amtech Elevator Services.
Earlier, in a typical slip and fall incident, a man who was rendered quadriplegic and suffered a partial vocal cord paralysis has won $7 million as compensation to be coughed up by the defendants.
The plaintiff sued Bank of America; CBRE, the building owner; a subcontractor, Brickman Group; and Best Landscaping, the company it hired to maintain the sidewalk, for not salting and maintaining the icy parking lot that caused his fall, resulting in him hitting his head and body on the parking lot, as he attempted to step onto a sidewalk to use the bank’s ATM. Since the incident in February 2015, the plaintiff regained the power to walk and drive a car after undergoing surgery and physical therapy but was unable to resume work.
This Middlesex County suit throws light once again that property owners have a duty to exercise reasonable care when it comes to maintaining parking lots or sidewalks outside of business areas and should be vigilant to promptly remove snow and ice to reduce the risk of falls and injuries.
