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Connecticut Injury Lawyer Blog

• WEATHER CAUSES ACCIDENTS?
  

  In our Stamford, Connecticut personal injury practice, we speak with many folks who have been injured as a result of weather-related conditions. Precipitation, rapidly changing temperatures, wind, and even the sun can be important factors in accidents, especially here in the northeast, which is known for its changeable climatic conditions. Are such accidents merely the result of random "acts of God," or can they anticipated and, with care, avoided?
  
  Although the weatherman is often wrong in his daily prognostications, the causes of changes in the weather, and it's results, are widely known. A drop in temperature below 32 degrees following a rainstorm is likely to produce icy conditions on sidewalks, parking lots and roadways. Snow melting on the roof of a building is likely to make its way to the ground where, when the temperature drops during the night, it is likely to freeze. Windy conditions may topple trees whose trunks have been weakened by age, rot or insects.

  The owners of properties, whether residential, retail, municipal or commercial, are charged with the responsibility of ascertaining weather conditions that may render their premises hazardous. They are further charged with mitigating the danger and/or warning those who enter their property of its presence.

  In Connecticut, however, long-standing case law holds that the property owner need not begin these protective measures until after the weather event that caused the hazardous condition has ended. Thus, when makiing a claim against the landowner, detailed knowledge of the local weather conditons leading up to the accident may be vital . If it can be shown that after the weather event ended and before the accident occured, a sufficient period time had passed to permit the owner to remedy or warn of the hazard, the owner's failure to do so may constitute carelessness, enabling the injured party to recover compensation.

  So, while accidents involving personal injury are often associated with hazardous weather conditions, these "acts of God" are often not the ultimate cause. Human intervention, or the failure thereof, is often at fault. If you have been injured by an accident involving weather-related conditions, be sure to consult with a lawyer who has meteorological knowledge and who has contacts with qualified forensic meteorological experts.

  
  

• HOSPITAL ELEVATOR DOORS TURN VISITOR INTO PATIENT
  

  At our Stamford, Connecticut personal injury law firm, we assist those who have been hurt by dangerous conditions resulting from the carelessness of property owners.

  After visiting a patient, sixty-year-old "Consuela" sustained severe tears to her the rotator cuffs of both her right and left shoulders and a long head biceps rupture when she was struck by the doors of one of the elevators at a large hostital in lower Fairfield County. As Consuela was boarding the elevator, its doors slammed shut on her, violently striking her on the shoulders. She underwent surgery to repair her dominant arm, and although the surgery was a successful, Consuela was left with permanent disabilitities of both arms.
  
  

  We sued the hospital for its negligence in maintaining, inspecting and repairing the elevator. Following jury selection and the night before evidence was to start, we received a stack of elevator maintenance and repair records we had requested a year before, but which supposedly didn not exist. We moved for sanctions and the judge dismissed the jury, imposed $7,500.00 fine against the law firm representing the hospital and ordered that the hospital pay for any further depositions we wished to take and pay the cost of our time to select another jury. He also advised the defendant to settle the case. Two weeks later the case was settled at a conference with the judge, but when the release came to us for our client's signature, it contained extensive confidentiality provisions. We refused to accept the release and filed a motion to enforce the judgment. The court ordered the hospital to remove the confidentiality language and the settlement and the sanctions were promptly paid.

• DOG BITES FACE OF CONNECTICUT CONCERT PIANIST
  

  Tragically, at our Stamford, Connecticut personal injury law firm, we encounter all-to-many dog bite injuries. Our client “Lara,” her husband, and their son arrived at the Defendants' new home for a housewarming party. The Defendants were former neighbors who owned a two-year-old ninety-pound Swiss mountain dog named Mercy. At the conclusion of the meal, Lara got up from the dinner table, and knelt down to pet Mercy. But while Lara was rising from her kneeling position, Mercy suddenly lunged up at her face with teeth bared, opened her mouth and clamped down on Lara’s chin, the dog’s fangs penetrating her lower lip and through the soft tissue of the lower jaw, down to the bone. When Mercy released her hold, the guests saw Lara clutch her face in agony and heard her screams of pain and shock.

  At the time of the attack, Lara,” a world-renowned concert pianist, lived in Connecticut with her husband, her twelve-year-old son, and their three dogs. She was looking forward to her return to Russia to perform at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Moscow.

  As a result of the attack, Lara suffered severe wounds to her chin, lower lip and gingival tissue of her lower jaw. She underwent surgery at the hospital, but when the bandages were removed and she first saw herself in the mirror, she was struck by the grim reality that her face would never look the same. The sorrow and pain she felt quickly turned to fear as she contemplated the effect her appearance might have on her career. While it is the pianist’s hands that make the music, it is, after all, her face that the audience sees.

  In the hope of restoring her appearance, she consulted with two plastic surgeons who recommended that she undergo further surgery. But this could not be accomplished until a year had passed. Lara bravely attended the Moscow concert, taking care to display only her right profile to the cameras and the audience. Performing since the age of fourteen, she hadn’t felt embarrassment on stage until then. But it was the constant questions about her face from friends and strangers, both at home and abroad, that was most disturbing. With each inquiry, she was forced to relive the terror of the attack.

  Lara consulted with Dr. Barry Zide, a prominent New York plastic surgeon and underwent a dermabrasion and lip reduction, with an excellent result.

  Connecticut General Statutes § 22-357 imposes responsibility on the owner or keeper of a dog if the injured party did not provoke the dog by teasing, tormenting or abusing the animal. Unlike claims for most other personal injuries, carelessness of the owners need not be proven to recover compensation. During mediation of this case, in which the dog bit the concert pianist, the insurance company for the dog’s owners met our demands and the case was settled.
  

• STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT: LIMOUSINE PASSENGER SUFFERS BROKEN NECK
  

  In our Stamford, Connecticut personal injury law firm, we frequently see serious motor vecicle accidents involving limousines. At the time of the accident, our client, "Jordan," was a forty-year-old investment executive, husband and father and in excellent health. Jordan was on his way home after returning from a business trip to London. After he arrived at JFK International Airport at approximately 9:30 PM he called the telephone number on his limousine “Car Pass” card and informed the limousine company that he needed transportation from the airport to his home in Connecticut. Ten minutes later the limousine picked him up at the terminal. Jordan, weary from his flight, read and dozed on the passenger side of the back seat, noting the light rain that was falling and also the fact that the limousine was traveling between sixty-five and seventy miles per hour as it travelled along Interstate 95 and crossed the border into Connecticut. He was not wearing a seat belt.

  Earlier that day, after running out of gas, the driver of a white Ford utility van proceeding north on I-95, pulled his vehicle over onto the shoulder of the median divider approximately three tenths of a mile west of exit 7 in Stamford, engaged his emergency flas