Connecticut Injury Lawyer Blog

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.