Posted on December 8, 2009 by Scott Grossman

City of New Brunswick, Premises Owner Named in Injury Lawsuit

The city of New Brunswick and its outdated inspection laws are the focus of a new premises liability lawsuit filed by the family of a Monmouth County college student, who suffered serious injuries in a fall accident at a friend’s off-campus house in 2008.

Howell-resident Frank Ozello Jr. was standing on a second floor landing, leaning against the railing when the railing broke under his weight, and sent him crashing to the floor. He suffered critical injuries, and had to be placed in a medically induced coma. He suffered brain trauma, broke 6 of his vertebrae and suffered three skull fractures. Ozello spent 6 weeks at a brain trauma center. He has been recovering physically, but still shows signs of brain damage.

The house where the accident occurred had several violations, including damaged handrails, broken windows and a weak and unstable door stairway. After the accident, inspectors found that the property owner had installed a spiral staircase by removing ceiling joists.  This probably weakened the structural integrity of the home further. The owner of the house Monroe-resident Jason Cyrus, is also named in the liability lawsuit. Cyrus, who once lived at the property, moved out and converted the home into a rental property without informing the city. By doing so, he was able to escape mandatory property inspections every three years.

After Ozello’s scary fall, the city found approximately two dozen violations on the same property. Among these were illegal conversions of a basement and a attic into extra bedrooms, and absence of smoke detectors and fire alarms. The city has moved fast to declare the house uninhabitable.

It shouldn’t be this easy for a property owner to rent out a derelict, uninhabitable property to unsuspecting tenants, who may have no idea of how unsafe the property is nor of the property owner’s duty to maintain safe premises.  

Scott Grossman is a New Jersey premises injury lawyer representing victims who have been injured in slip and fall accidents, amusement park accidents, and dog bites, in the state of New Jersey. 

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Posted on May 9, 2009 by Scott Grossman

CNA Provides Tips to Property Owners to Prevent Slip and Fall Accidents

Slip and fall injuries are expected to increase in number as the baby boomer generation ages. That’s because the elderly are more at risk of being injured in slip and fall accidents. That, and other facts and solutions are contained in a new white paper by insurer CNA.

According to the report, annually fall accidents kill more than 16,000 people in the country. Besides these, more than one million people are injured every year. Most of these accidents are caused because of factors like poor walking surface, lack of visibility, poor accessibility, and weak hand rails and guard rails.

According to the National Floor Institute, the number of seniors in the country between 2005 and 2020 is expected to increase from 35 million to 77 million. Not only are these people more likely to slip and fall injuring themselves, but the cost of treating these injuries is higher for an elderly person than for someone younger.  As Bergen County premises liability attorneys frequently see, the kinds of fall injuries that elderly people face are also the number one reason they have to be hospitalized.

The insurer has a wealth of tips for owners of commercial properties to reduce their claims figures by making premises safer. Suggestions include installation of high traction flooring material that is resistant to slipping. If an existing floor increases the risk of slipping, CNA suggests using surface treatments, replacement of the floor, and carpeting to reduce the risk. The National Floor Safety Institute has a range of recommended flooring materials that can reduce slipping. Besides, premises should be well lit, and stairways should be especially safe to use. Staff must be trained in cleanup of spills as soon as they occur.

According to 2000 statistics, most of the time, premises injury lawsuits are won by plaintiffs. Besides, the average compensation awarded to plaintiffs has also risen steadily.

 

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Posted on February 2, 2009 by Scott Grossman

New Jersey Woman May Lose Premises Injury Award In Mercer Cemetery Case

A New Jersey woman, who fell while trying to scale the wall of a Mercer cemetery and successfully sued the city of Trenton, may end up not keeping her $1.6 million premises injury award after all.

In 2001, Suzanne Ogborne was strolling through the Mercer cemetery, when an employee locked the gates at 4.30 pm – the cemetery's closing hours - leaving Ogborne inside. After trying in vain to find another open route out of the cemetery, Ogborne finally scaled the wall, and jumped over and down to the other side. The fall left her with a broken tibia. She had to undergo surgery, and was forced to remain away from work for three months. She also suffered a pulmonary embolism, a disorder characterized by blockage of a lung artery and caused by a blood clot traveling from the leg, as a result of her injuries and the treatment. The condition can lead to a loss of oxygen in the blood, and carries the risk of organ damage because of this loss of oxygen. 

Ogborne sued the city of Trenton, claiming that her injuries were the result of negligence because the guard who locked the gates should have checked to make sure that nobody was in, before he shut the gates. Ogborne won the suit, and was awarded $1.6 million. Now, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ordered a retrial in the matter, saying that the case should have been held to a "palpably unreasonable" standard of liability, and not the "ordinary negligence" standard under which she had been awarded $1.6 million. The justices ruled that the dangerous condition had been brought about by a combination of two factors - Ogborne's presence in the park, and the guard's locking of the gates.   The employee's act of locking the gates in itself did not constitute a dangerous condition. The court also ruled that a new jury should consider Ogborne's negligence comparative to the negligence of the city in the incident. 

Premises Injury Lawyer

It's not always easy to pursue claims against government bodies because of governmental immunity. Private citizens are often faced with a solid block of wall when they try to come up against a government entity. Litigating claims when you have been injured on another's property, private or government, involves hiring an experienced Monmouth and Bergen  County premises injury attorney to file a claim for injuries sustained. If you have been injured on another's property – through a slip and fall accident, on an elevator or stairways etc. – contact a Monmouth and Bergen County premises injury lawyer at my firm for a free evaluation of your case.

 

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