In June 2005, a 50-year-old woman was injured when she fell down a stairway in her office building in Lockport, NY. Plaintiff sued the two business entities believed to own the building, claiming that the stairway's top step was missing a chunk of the rubber molding that covered the edges of each step of the flight, and that Defendants' negligent failure to correct the defect had led to her tripping on it and tumbling to the bottom of the roughly 11-step stairway. The stairway in question was in the rear of the building, and it led to the office's parking lot. Plaintiff, who was heading out of the building to buy lunch when her fall occurred, argued that building management had constructive notice of the missing chunk of treading because the defect had existed for months prior to her accident. Several of Plaintiff's co-workers corroborated her claim that the stairway's top step had long been missing a chunk of treading.
VERDICT: $3,900,000
Patricia Page & James Page v. Ulrich Development Co. & 111 Main Street, LLC
