A large jury award of $490,000 took more than three years, but Donna O'Leary won her battle. The award represents one of the largest amounts meted out in Hartford Superior Court.
"I'm walking on air", Ms. O'Leary said after the verdict. "I'm so glad it's over. It's like closing a chapter on my life." The fall occurred inside an office building where Mr. O'Leary worked. The landlord denied Ms. O'Leary's allegations. "It's a conspiracy, the whole thing", he said, adding that no one actually saw her fall. Apparently the jury thought otherwise.
Ms. O'Leary's complaint focused on two main issues: the lighting of the stairs and frayed carpeting on the stairway that had been patched with duct tape. Other workers in the building had complained about the lighting of the stairs, which was controlled by a timer but not timed correctly. As for the duct tape, it kept curling. So when Ms. O'Leary went up the dark steps that morning, the tip of her foot caught in the curled duct tape and she tumbled backward five to eight steps.
Haymond Law, the firm representing Ms. O'Leary, rejected a $150,000 settlement offer from the landlord's insurance company, opting instead for a trial. The Jury delivered its verdict after three days of deliberations. Its total award was $545,495 but that amount was reduced by 10% to a net of $490,945.
The 10 percent reduction is part of what is called comparative negligence, a phrase used when the jury determines how much the plaintiff was at fault, explained Attorney Haymond. Thus, in Ms. O'Leary's case, the jury determined that she was 10 percent at fault. We think the only reason they did that was because she worked there and she knew the duct tape was there, Haymond speculated. But the reduction in no way dampened Ms. O'Leary's spirits. "I just had to tell my story, and people listened", she said. "All our worries are gone now", she added.
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