Greene Broillet, Attorney Aaron Osten and Attorney Alan Van Gelder of Greene Broillet & Wheeler in Los Angeles, California, have secured a $12.2 million jury verdict for a client who suffered a traumatic brain injury after slipping and falling in her office.
A Los Angeles jury awarded a $12.2 million judgment on Thursday to a young woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury after a slip and fall incident in her office building.
The plaintiff, 38-year-old Jessica Vu, worked as a counselor for children with autism in an office building in Hermosa Beach. On August 29th, 2016, Vu was working late studying for her licensing credential exam at the office.
Greene Broillet , That evening, the defendants, a carpet cleaning crew working for DFS Flooring Inc., hired by the defendant building owners, 2447 PCH LLC, and property managers, Mar Ventures Inc., arrived and cleaned the common area hallways.
Vu and two co-workers eventually needed to clear out their offices for the carpet cleaning. During the 3-week trial, the plaintiff’s legal team argued that the defendants improperly cleaned the carpet and failed to warn Vu about the wet carpet.
“They cleaned the carpet and just left it behind; wet, no warning signs, no-slip mats, and just ignored the basic precautions causing a catastrophic injury to our client who was simply trying to go home,”
said trial attorney Aaron Osten.
While exiting the building, Vu walked across the wet carpet, opened the door to the stairwell, and walked across an epoxy landing.
The epoxy landing had been recently installed and did not have adequate grip-and-slip resistance. According to the complaint, the wetness on Vu’s shoes caused her to slip and fall down a flight of stairs hitting her head on the concrete steps.
Vu drove herself home after the fall and went to urgent care the next day, where doctors diagnosed her with a head injury. 48 hours later, she began to suffer headaches and cognitive issues.
Within several weeks, Vu’s mental and cognitive abilities had declined, forcing her to resign from a career she loved and move back to her hometown in Florida.
Six years after her slip and fall, Vu continues to suffer from memory problems, issues with executive function, difficulty multitasking, fatigue, headaches, dizziness, and nausea. She also has emotional problems and anxiety arising from her brain injury.
“We are enormously grateful that the jury recognized the insidious nature of a lifelong traumatic brain injury and our client’s need for compensation, There’s more public awareness now about head injuries, which are often difficult to see until you understand the science and how it has affected the individual,” added Van Gelder.
said lead trial attorney Alan Van Gelder.
