Slip and Fall Verdict Reversed: Sovereign Immunity Strikes Again
[B' Spokes: It amazes me how many ways Maryland law blames the victim, like Government has no responsibility to maintain a safe path when exiting a train... well until it was appealed in this one case.]
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from Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals turned back another injured victim under the archaic "Really, do we still have that in 2011?" doctrine of sovereign immunity.
Plaintiff alleged she suffered an ankle injury when she slipped and fell on a wet platform after exiting a train at the Cheverly Metro station in Prince George County. The defendant, the beloved Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, made all the usual - and appropriate defenses. You knew the platform was wet, didn't you? You even saw a yellow warning cone that the platform was wet, right? No one appeared to have mopped the floor to make it wet, did they?
Plaintiff's lawyers got creative and did some research. They found out that WMATA used a cleaning agent "Super Shine-All" to clean its train platforms. The coefficient of friction on the floor, plaintiff argued, was such that no one should have been surprised that the woman would fall. In a trial before Judge Maureen M. Lamasney, a Prince George's County jury agreed and awarded damages (I'm not sure how much).