Slip & Fall

A 36 year old man, working at a barber shop, left the barber shop at 9:30 am to make a deposit at the bank. As he left the barber shop slipped on ice outside of the barber shop in an area maintained by the shopping center. The injured party had just walked over the same area on his way into the barber shop one half hour earlier. The accumulated ice appeared to be from a leak in the area above the sidewalk that would drip water when the sun would hit the roof, causing the ice on the roof to drip down on the sidewalk and freeze. For this reason multiple parties had to be brought into the lawsuit including the shopping center, the property manager, the construction company hired to originally fix the leak, and the landscaping company whose job it was to keep the walkways clear. There were multiple disputes between the four defendants and, in addition to that, under Massachusetts law, it was alleged there was no case as Massachusetts comparative negligence would bar the victim from recovering if he knew of the ice and was more at fault than the defendants under the Massachusetts comparative negligence law. In addition, it must be noted that the injured person was employed by the barber shop and collected worker's compensation benefits as well. The injured employee suffered a knee contusion, wore a brace for one month, missed three days of work and went through physical therapy. As a result of the facts of the case and the pending comparative negligence claim by the defendants, the case was settled for a total of $22,000.00 by Karns & Kerrison on behalf of the injured employee in addition to his collecting worker's compensation benefits.