Fullerton Beck attorney Heather Julien secured a legal victory for our clients, a Homeowners’ Association (HOA) and its management company, in a slip-and-fall lawsuit. The plaintiff, a resident of the condominium complex, alleged that she sustained serious injuries, including a traumatic brain injury and shoulder damage, after slipping on a patch of ice in the parking lot. She further claimed that the icy condition was caused by a sump pump leak from the basement of the building, for which the HOA and management company were responsible.
The Supreme Court in Orange County, NY, granted our motion for summary judgment, dismissing the case in its entirety. The plaintiff’s claims were based largely on speculation, as she assumed that the sump pump leak had caused the icy condition but provided no concrete evidence to support her assertion. Furthermore, her expert’s testimony was also found to be speculative, as it lacked any substantial proof or testing to link the sub-pump to the ice patch in question.
Our defense successfully argued that the plaintiff’s theory was purely speculative and unsupported by facts. The court agreed, noting that the plaintiff had no prior issues with ice in that location during her many years of residence and that the icy condition was not present the night before the incident. Additionally, there was no evidence that the HOA or management company had constructive notice of any hazardous condition that could have been addressed prior to the plaintiff’s fall.
Heather’s compelling argument and the lack of substantive facts to support the plaintiff’s claims were the linchpin of this successful outcome.