Viñas & DeLuca $1,875,000.00 Settlement for Individual Who Slipped on Wet Paint

The $1,875,000.00 settlement was reached after less than a year of litigation. The plaintiff was injured while walking along a freshly painted sidewalk located outside a shopping plaza in Miami Dade County, Florida. He was 69 years old at the time. The plaintiff claimed that he suffered a mild TBI and injured his neck, back, shoulder, and wrist because of the fall. He was transported from the scene by Fire Rescue to a nearby hospital and later treated for his injuries by a variety of healthcare providers.

Video surveillance obtained before litigation clearly captured one of the defendants’ employees rolling paint in the area where the plaintiff was injured, as well as the actual fall. The video also showed the employee setting up caution tape around the sidewalk that he painted and then removing it as he finished. According to an attorney for the plaintiff, “This was the key evidence in the case. It was never disclosed or produced when we asked for it during the litigation.” Instead, the surveillance video produced in litigation did not show any painting work being performed, was taken from a different camera, and captured a far less useful camera angle. After the plaintiff was injured, the defendants placed cones and caution tape around the sidewalk.

In the months after his fall, the plaintiff underwent surgery to his right median nerve, multiple epidural injections to his neck and back, an anterior cervical fusion surgery, and a radiofrequency ablation procedure to treat injuries to the discs in his neck. Imaging studies of his head were suggestive of a shearing injury to the brain. The defense contended that the plaintiff did not suffer a brain injury and argued that the majority of his injuries were either unrelated or preexisting.

Case Details: Pending in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County, Florida. Case No. 2020-014980-CA-11.

Viñas & DeLuca, PLLC proudly represent individuals and families in Miami Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and throughout Florida who have suffered injuries or lost loved ones due to the negligence of others. More information can be found at: www.VDLegal.com | https://www.vdlegal.com/miami-lawyer/slip-fall-accident.