GMR Partner Joe Petka won a Philadelphia jury trial involving a 23-year-old courier who was delivering packages to a Philadelphia hospital when she rolled her ankle and fell on river rocks that were placed on the ground near the entrance. The plaintiff was helped up by hospital staff and taken to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with fractures of the calcaneus and the cuboid. She was placed in a boot for immobilization, and an ultrasound revealed peroneal tenosynovitis and intrasubstance peroneal tendon subluxation. Ultimately, the plaintiff underwent reconstruction of the peroneal tendon sheath, debridement of the peroneal tendon, and removal of the accessory tendon. At trial she testified that she continued to suffer pain in her ankle while walking relatively short distances and missed 18 weeks of work because of the fall.
The plaintiff argued that it was dangerous to place the rocks so close to the entrance, especially given that they were in the path of travel of anyone who parked at the location where plaintiff parked.
For the defense, Joe argued that the rocks were open and obvious, and that the fall happened because the plaintiff was not paying attention. Moreover, he impeached the plaintiff’s credibility by using her own Facebook posts that contradicted her direct testimony. Although the plaintiff told the jury that she was confined to a wheelchair during a Disney trip taken after the fall, Joe impeached her with a post of her standing barefoot by a pool, while carrying another adult woman like a baby.
The jury of 7 women and 5 men found that the accident was majority the fault of the plaintiff and entered a defense verdict for the hospital.
