New Yorkers need to be extra careful in the winter when walking around our city. Pavement covered in ice and snow can make ordinary streets, driveways, and sidewalks downright dangerous. This is what a Staten Island man found out three years ago when he fell while walking in his landlord’s driveway three years ago. The man suffered a broken ankle that required surgery.
The man ended up suing his landlord, contending that a leaking drain pipe led to ice forming on the driveway, causing him to slip and fall. The man hired a premises accidents lawyer, but before the case could go to trial, the two parties settled for more than $250,000.
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The trek across the driveway was apparently a familiar one for the tenant, who lived next door to his landlord. The man was walking over to pay his rent in person when he slipped on the icy driveway. When emergency responders got to the scene, they were forced to put down salt so that they wouldn’t slip and fall as well.
It seems unlikely that the man’s landlord would have considered a leaky drain pipe to be the potential cause of a slip-and-fall accident, but there are many sorts of accidents that could stem from relatively innocuous causes. It’s the duty of a homeowner to make sure that his property is safe, especially when people — such as a tenant stopping by to pay rent — are likely to be accessing it. People who have been victimized by negligent property owners can seek compensation for their injuries. A personal injury attorney can help them to do that.
Source: Staten Island Advance, “Slip-and-fall in icy Staten Island driveway results in 250G settlement.” Frank Donnelly, Jan. 6, 2014
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