Woman Receives Millions From Slip & Fall Injury At Public Storage
On July 11, following a four-day trial, a jury in Middlesex County, N.J., awarded $2.5 million to Jane Bishop, a woman who injured her left arm from falling at a Public Storage facility in Monmouth Junction, N.J.
Rejecting the defense’s suggestion that Bishop, 66, was prone to falling, the jury unanimously ruled that negligence by Public Storage was the proximate cause of her injuries. They awarded her $2.5 million for past, present, and future pain and suffering and attributed 100 percent of the damages to Public Storage.
Bishop broke her left elbow on Jan. 9, 2020, when she fell at the entranceway to the facility’s office. An engineering expert who testified at the trial said the step leading to the entrance was in disrepair, wasn’t up to code, and had multiple defects, which caused her foot to get caught. Following the fall, Bishop, who’s left-handed, had her left elbow joint surgically replaced and underwent two carpal tunnel surgeries to alleviate swelling from the initial, injury-related surgery.
According to Bishop’s attorney, Public Storage only offered a “nuisance value” settlement before the trial. At trial, the company took the position that it was not obligated to make repairs to the entrance, he said. An employee said in a deposition that the staff walk around the facility every day to look for trip hazards, and the company said Bishop had fallen at the site before that incident.
Public Storage was represented by Colin Hackett of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith in Newark, N.J.
More Content
Popular Posts
The self storage industry is in a precarious...
There are an estimated 700,000 hotels in the...
Joe Shoen, CEO of U-Haul, has had enough.
In a booming economy, expendable income...
The REITs new pricing strategy – lowering...
National Storage Affiliates Trust (NSA), the...
Boat and RV storage has morphed and...
It’s said that necessity is the mother of...
Self-storage is not an industry that is...
The question of “abandonment” of stored...
It’s odd that I ever get the “last word,”...
Mother Nature can be a cruel mistress....
As children, most of us played “follow the...
Over the last five years, as the use of...
XYZ Storage wants to make life for its...
Recent Posts
Donald Trump has just reclaimed the White...
Within the sprawling urban desert of...
Smart units, call centers, and access...
When questioned about the things that...
It’s hard for me to come to terms with the...
When David Allan, president of Apple Storage...
Throughout history, there have always been...
In 2024, it’s become commonplace to accept...