$1.15M Settlement in Slip & Fall at Movie Theater
Going to see a movie in a theater is an entire experience…the smell of the popcorn, the excitement of the previews, and finally, the main reason you are there, the feature presentation. For attorney Jonathan P. Crannell’s client, a 65-yr old retiree, she woke up one morning and decided to treat herself to this experience with an early show at a large, nationwide, movie theater chain. Before entering her assigned theater, she decided to use the restroom. Unbeknownst to her, the night cleaning crew had done a deep-clean on this restroom, but they hadn’t followed protocol. The clean was done too close to when the theater opened, leaving behind a soaking wet floor with puddles and insufficient time to dry. This may have been a fixable issue had the opening assistant manager done his daily inspection, which would have included inspecting the restroom and noticing that the floors were dangerously wet, at which time he could have put up wet floor signs and taken other measures to ensure the floor was safe for theater-goers. Unfortunately, he did not do his job and was written up and given a warning for this oversight. Still unaware of the lurking danger, the client used the middle stall and, as she proceeded to the sinks to wash her hands, she slipped on the wet floor, landing on her knee. She immediately knew something was terribly wrong and screamed out for help for several minutes. She eventually used her phone to call 911, who alerted the theater of the injury, and was transported to the hospital by ambulance.
For Jon Crannell, it was to his client’s advantage that the theater had been experiencing ongoing problems with the company they had contracted to do their janitorial work. That company actually had no janitorial experience and simply subcontracted the work out to another company to complete. The work had been sub-par for a while, so there was quite a string of complaints that had been filed. When the general manager arrived 1.5 hrs after the client’s fall, he went to inspect the bathroom with another employee and took photos and video of the wet floor, even splashing around a bit to show the large size of one of the puddles, in order to file yet another complaint. In filing that complaint, it became part of the official record and was also disclosed by the defense
The fall caused a fracture to the client’s left patella, resulting in an ORIF, multiple manipulations under anesthesia, and a total knee replacement. Her pain is ongoing, she walks with a limp, and requires a cane most of the time. Her dancing days are over, something she used to enjoy doing. There are future surgeries recommended, though nothing that will ever result in her living pain-free. After Crannell’s first mediation for the case was not successful, he wanted something to show the defense he was serious about taking this case to trial. He came to Focus Graphics to get a simple colorization made of his client’s knee X-ray. The results were astounding to him because the only difference between his first mediation and the second were the judge and the colorization. They went from the first judge recommending trying to settle for $650K to receiving a settlement of $1.1M.
“I’m a big fan of Focus Graphics; I previously used a competitor and was underwhelmed, and ended up at a trial last year with an incomplete colorization of herniations left explaining to the jury that ‘some of the injuries weren’t labeled, but you can see them here and here.’ I discovered Focus Graphics through the Trial Lawyers University and I’ve been sold since. I had planned on using them for every trial-bound case…now I’m considering using them on every case with objective injuries. We had previously mediated this case but we were way too far apart to continue, so I called it quits. I did not have this colorized x-ray at the time of the first mediation. I don’t think that the colorization is 100% the reason I was able to nearly double their prior top-offer, but I think it showed the Defendants I was preparing for trial and not bluffing that I wanted to try this case, that I had top-notch demonstratives that will speak to a jury, and that the case would likely only continue to increase in value as final trial preparations continued. The Judge told me and my client that none of the adjusters came to mediation planning on a 7-figure settlement – the only thing that changed between the first mediation and this one is the illustration and the judge who was mediating the case. My client was overjoyed with the outcome. I feel like Focus Graphics took a great case and made it better by presenting the patellar fracture in a way that begged empathy from the viewer, in a way that was professional and polished, and that made it look like we were trial-ready with a good war chest/budget at our disposal. I paid less than $1,000 for the illustration, but it looked like a million bucks…literally!”
~Jonathan P. Crannell, Esq., Naperville, IL | Marker & Crannell
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