One case that sticks out in my mind is a case where my client was a resident of a corporation, or a tenant of a corporation, a housing authority. In that the housing authority provided low rent housing to people of low income, and one day she was going to work, my client
tripped and fell over a piece of concrete that was embedded in the complex’s grounds. And as a result of the piece of concrete embedded into the ground, she sustained a significant
leg fracture which required a surgery where they inserted plates and screws, and actually required numerous surgeries after the initial one.
She came to me. She basically was at a crossroads where she couldn’t provide for her children. She couldn’t go to work and she couldn’t go to school, and the public corporation, the housing authority, basically told her, well, you know what, you’re on your own. We did nothing wrong. And after further investigation, I determined that wasn’t true, and that we learned that the housing authority as a public corporation, basically get government funding, and because they get government funding, they have certain requirements that they have to adhere to, to the government, for getting this money. And one of those requirements is providing a safe and defect free grounds.
They failed miserably in adhering to these strict guidelines. We determined that one of the managers of the grounds actually saw this piece of concrete that was in the ground where my client fell over, months before the fall, and also determined that he marked it down on his checklist that was being provided to the government. He marked it down and said, in my opinion it’s not a hazard. It’s not a defect, so we don’t have to fix it.
We actually went to trial on this case, and a jury after hearing all the evidence decided that they were wrong, and my client did nothing wrong, and the housing authority failed to create a safe environment for their tenants and the jury also decided that just because you are of low income, and you are in a low rent housing complex, does not mean you don’t have the right to live in a safe environment. And that case meant a lot to me personally because you could see the look on the mother’s eyes when the jury kind of believed in what she had to say, and they helped her out of a situation where she did nothing wrong, and once again, they simply didn’t give her money for sympathy. It was to reimburse her, whether right or wrong, to make her whole again.