Slip and fall on black ice yields $2.15M settlement in New Jersey
A woman seriously injured after a fall on black ice settled her suit against the property owner and snow removal contractor for $2.15 million.
A woman seriously injured after a fall on black ice settled her Monmouth County, New Jersey suit against the property owner and snow removal contractor, Anderson v. Claremont Neptune, on May 27 for $2.15 million.
As Yvette Anderson left work at 3310 Route 36 in Neptune on Jan. 9, 2018, she walked through the parking lot on the way to her car. It was already dark outside by at 5:20 p.m., but the parking lot lights allegedly had not been turned on yet. Anderson fell on a patch of black ice covering a large pothole. The incident was captured on video, said her lawyer, Nicholas Leonardis of Stathis & Leonardis in Edision.
Anderson claimed she sustained multiple injuries in the fall, including a labral tear to her right shoulder, right elbow epicondylitis, and aggravation to a prior lumber disc herniation. Her injuries required arthroscopic surgery for her right shoulder, nerve transposition to her right elbow, and a lumbar laminectomy for her back, Leonardis said.
The parties reached a settlement of $2.15 million on May 27, before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Owen McCarthy. The settlement payment was divided between the property owner, Claremont Neptune LLC, which contributed $1.3 million, and the snow removal contractor, KV Property, which contributed $850,000, according to Leonardis.
Counsel for KV Property, Walter Klekotka of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin in Mount Laurel, couldn’t be reached by phone.
Counsel for Claremont Neptune, Robert Gillespie of Turner, O’Mara, Donnelly & Petrycki in Cherry Hill and Michael Marone of McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter in Morristown, also couldn’t be reached.
“In these cases, we are always happy when we can get a number that is fair for our client,” Leonardis said by phone. “Her injuries were significant, and she continues to deal with them even today.”
“Judge McCarthy in Monmouth County really dedicated a lot of time to getting these parties together and to get this wrapped up,” he added. “That kind of attention makes such a difference in resolving cases for our clients.”
— Colleen Murphy
$1 Million For Dog Attack
Martin v. Henderson: A woman whose right arm was left severely disfigured after a dog attack has received $1.025 million to settle her Union County suit, and was paid the bulk of that sum on June 20.
Jane Martin, now 72, was on the front porch of her Rahway home on Feb. 28, 2020, when she was attacked by her neighbor’s Rottweiler, King, which escaped from the neighbor’s yard when a section of their fence collapsed.
The dog bit into Martin’s right arm and dragged her down the stairs and across her driveway toward her neighbor’s house, until a good Samaritan rescued her by striking the dog with a stick, said Martin’s lawyer, Howard Lesnik, a solo practitioner in Mountainside.
After the attack, Martin had no right radial pulse, multiple large tears to the tissue of the right upper arm and minimal sensation in the right hand, said Lesnik. She had multiple surgical procedures to save her right upper arm, and she lost a chunk of the arm due to the dog bite, Lesnik said. Martin has also lost the use of her right hand due to the damage to her veins, tendons and arteries. A spinal cord stimulator was surgically implanted into her back for her chronic pain in her right arm, Lesnik said.
Martin has learned to use her left hand to hold a fork and to perform certain household tasks, Lesnik said.
Martin filed suit against the dog’s owner, Germaine Henderson, under New Jersey’s Dog Bite Statute, N.J.S.A. 4:19-16, which confers strict liability for the owner of a pet that bites someone. She also sued Greatescapes Contractors and its principal, Anthony Pardo, which installed her neighbor’s vinyl fence, claiming they were negligent.
Greatescapes relocated the fence from a location three feet from the property line to a point on the property line, Lesnik said. The suit claimed most of the fence posts were leaning to the west and were not plumb, Lesnik said. In addition, scuff marks on the top rail of the fence were observed, indicating excess wobbling of the posts in windy weather, Lesnik said. Martin’s suit said the fence was improperly reconstructed, constituting a dangerous, hazardous and nuisance-like condition during normal use, Lesnik said.
Henderson’s homeowner insurer tendered its $300,000 policy limit in December 2020. Greatescapes and Pardo agreed to pay $725,000 on June 7 of this year, and payment was received on June 20, said Lesnik.
The lawyer for Henderson, Julie Dorfman of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin in Roseland, and the lawyer for Greatescapes and Pardo, Evan Rudnicki of Black, Marjieh & Sanford in Elmsford, New York, did not return calls about the case.
— Charles Toutant