Our client, a 51-year-old restaurant owner, was walking through a major South Florida international airport when she slipped on a wet substance on the floor and fell hard, fracturing her right scaphoid and tearing her scapholunate ligament. CCTV footage captured cleaning company employees in the vicinity of the wet substance before the fall, yet no one cleaned it or placed a warning sign. Track marks through the liquid confirmed the substance had been on the floor long enough for multiple people to walk through it. Our client required three separate surgical procedures to address the cascade of injuries: a De Quervain's release, a wrist arthroscopy revealing full-thickness cartilage loss, and ultimately a proximal row carpectomy. Mausner Group pursued the contracted cleaning company and secured a settlement of $350,000.
The CCTV footage was the centerpiece of the liability case. It placed cleaning company employees in the vicinity of the hazard before the fall and established constructive notice. The track marks through the liquid confirmed the hazard had been there long enough for people to walk through it repeatedly without it being addressed. The damages case was built around three surgeries, a permanent impairment to the dominant hand, and the concrete impact on our client's livelihood as a restaurant owner.
