NATURE OF CASE:

Premises liability; Fall on hotel patio

INJURIES ALLEGED:

Intertrochant eric fracture of left hip

NAME OF CASE:

Withheld.

COURT:

U.S. District Court

JUDGE:

Douglas P. Woodlock

AMOUNT OF AWARD / SETTLEMENT:

$300,000

ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFFS:

Eric J. Parker

CASE SUMMARY:

The plaintiff, a 73-year-old, retired Massachusetts man, suffered an intertrochant eric fracture of his left hip after a fall on a stone patio at the defendant's resort hotel in Aruba.

The plaintiff and his wife were guests at the defendant's resort hotel in Oranjestad, Aruba. The plaintiff had been sitting in direct sun beside the hotel's pool when he decided to move his chair into a shaded area of the patio. As the plaintiff moved his chair a distance of approximately five feet, he suddenly felt himself fall to the ground, injuring his left hip.

Examination of locus showed that the patio consisted of an upper and lower level, separated by a distance of approximately 20 inches in height. A series of holes, which had been rifled with cement, disclosed the previous location of a rope barrier which had been supported by evenly spaced stanchions. The stanchions had been removed by hotel management, at the time of the incident, in preparation for the installation of a new barrier system. No interim barrier system had been installed to prevent persons, such as the plaintiff, from falling to the lower level of the patio. The plaintiff's theory of liability was confirmed by comparing photographs of the locus at the time of the incident with photographs of the patio taken by the plaintiff during a stay at the hotel one year earlier, which clearly showed the stanchion and rope barrier in place.

The plaintiff brought suit against the hotel's owner, a Dutch corporation, and the hotel's Massachusetts-based management company, claiming that the defendants were negligent in failing to warn guests, including the plaintiff, of the sudden change in elevation on the patio. The plaintiff further alleged that the uniformity in tile pattern, between the upper and lower levels of the patio, made it extremely difficult for the plaintiff to observe the sudden change in grade absent the protective barrier.

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