Broken Bones

An 82-year-old woman injured her shoulder after tripping over exposed signpost bolts that were sticking up through the ground on the walkway near a Seattle retail store. The bolts were exposed after a handicap parking sign was removed. The retail store’s own policies required employees to monitor the area outside the store where the bolts existed. An employee had placed blue painting tape over the exposed bolts to warn people, but the tape did not conform to established safety guidelines. Plaintiff argued the blue tape also camouflaged the bolts by making it difficult to see whether there was in fact a tripping hazard.

Plaintiff was walking on the walkway with her husband when she tripped over the bolts. She landed on her shoulder and hit her head on the pavement.

Early on in the litigation Plaintiff was able to show that the store’s employees were aware of the exposed bolts at least 2 months prior to Plaintiff’s fall. However, later in the litigation and beyond the discovery cutoff date, the defendant produced documents showing that the defendant was aware of the exposed bolts 8 months earlier, but did nothing during that time to correct the hazard. The defendant also admitted in its own records that the exposed bolts were likely a tripping hazard to customers and others that were using the walkway. This new evidence contradicted prior sworn deposition testimony given by some of the defendant’s employees.

Plaintiff moved for sanctions against the defendant for intentionally withholding this new evidence. The Court awarded sanctions in the amount of $50,000.

Plaintiff’s injuries consisted of a fracture of the right humerus bone resulting in loss of ROM and shoulder girdle atrophy (permanency claimed), a hematoma to the right temporal lobe (no permanency claimed), and degenerative thoracic kyphosis (causation disputed). Plaintiff claimed future medical expense in the range of $1.4M to $4M depending on the plaintiff’s future life expectancy.

No settlement offers were made prior to Plaintiff commencing suit. The last offer at mediation was $150,000. Plaintiff’s last demand at mediation was $3,000,000.

The parties settled one week before trial in the amount of $2,000,000.