The Legal Intelligencer
Vol. 218, No. 23
Copyright 1998 by American Lawyer Media, ALM LLC

February 4, 1998

Suburban
Bucks County

WOMAN DEMANDING QUARTER MILLION IN SLIP AND FALL CASE GETS $10,000

DEFENSE CALLS IT A 'FORM OF TORT REFORM'

Tracy Blitz Newman
Of The Legal Staff

A woman who fell on the ice outside her apartment complex won a trial last week against Top of the Hill Apartments, the company that owned the property.

However, even though she asked for nearly a quarter million dollars, the jury awarded Sharon Hayes of Doylestown $10,000.

Defense lawyer John Gerard Devlin said the low award reflects what he perceives to be a trend in the suburbs.

"Outside of Philadelphia, there is a form of tort reform occurring," Devlin said.

Hayes fell outside her apartment during the winter of 1993-94. She broke her wrist and required two surgeries -- one to install screws, plates and rods and one to remove them, Devlin said.

Hayes sued Top of the Hill, alleging she fell as a result of the company's negligence in failing to remove the ice and snow. In her complaint, she made a demand of more than $200,000, Devlin said.

After deliberating for seven hours last Wednesday, a 12-person jury of six men and six women returned a verdict finding Top of the Hill negligent, and awarding Hayes $10,000 in damages.

Devlin said he was not surprised the jury found against the defendant on the issue of liability, or that it awarded the plaintiff some damages.

In a slip and fall case in Pennsylvania, Devlin said, it's "almost strict liability -- the plaintiff is going to collect."

Also, the defendant did not put on any independent medical testimony to refute the plaintiff's damages, he said.

But in his opinion, this was a "compromise verdict."

The accident occurred in a particularly bad winter, Devlin said, and he thinks the jury took that into consideration when it calculated the damages.

Had the case been tried in Philadelphia, Devlin said, the verdict would have been much higher.

Devlin said that at a settlement conference prior to trial, Judge William Rufe had assessed that the plaintiff's case was worth $65,000. The defendant's highest offer, he said, was $15,000, which represented the "cost of going to trial."

According to Devlin, the lesson from the case is that "in Bucks County, even if they find you liable, the verdict is very low."

Hayes' lawyer, Howard Silverman of Kane & Silverman, did not return phone calls for comment.