Our client was a guest at a major hotel in Miami-Dade County when they encountered a staircase that had accumulated rainwater and had not been maintained in a reasonably safe condition. The surface was dangerously slippery. Our client fell, suffering a complex trimalleolar ankle fracture that required extensive medical treatment and ultimately led to the development of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a severe and often permanent neurological pain condition that dramatically altered our client's quality of life.CRPS is not a soft-tissue injury that resolves with time. It is a progressive, debilitating condition that causes chronic pain, hypersensitivity, and functional loss far beyond the original fracture site. The long-term impact on our client's ability to carry out daily activities, work, and enjoy life was severe and well-documented.The hotel denied liability from the outset. Mausner Group filed suit, retained expert witnesses, and built a damages case that the defense could not credibly contest. The case settled for $1,400,000.
Florida premises liability law requires property owners, including hotels, to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition and to warn guests of known hazards. A staircase accumulating rainwater without adequate drainage, non-slip surfaces, or warning signage is a textbook failure of that duty. We retained an engineering expert who documented the defective condition of the staircase and established that the hotel had both the knowledge and the means to address it.The CRPS diagnosis was central to the damages case. We worked with medical experts who documented the nature, severity, and permanence of the condition, countering any defense argument that our client's ongoing symptoms were exaggerated or unrelated to the fall. Hotels are sophisticated defendants with experienced insurance carriers. They denied responsibility early and aggressively. Mausner Group's response was to build a trial-ready case that made settlement the only rational outcome.
