Attorney(s): Newark Trial Attorney Antonio Grillo and Partner Raye Futerfas
Settlement: $1,105,000
After a mortgage company foreclosed on a house in Highland Lakes, New Jersey, they hired a property manager to manage the home and a realtor to sell the home. The property manager certified the property was ready to be shown. The realtor brought our client to look at the house. As our client was walking down the interior stairs to the basement, the stairs collapsed. The stairway was not complete. There were no handrails and the stairs were never properly affixed to the wall. The steps collapsed and toppled beneath our 47-year-old client and he fell 8 feet to the hard ground below. The impact of the fall was so severe it broke his heel and it had to be reconstructed with surgery. Since our client was a groundskeeper for the Ramapo School District, the injury prevented him from being able to do his job and eventually he was forced to retire due to his disability.
The case was settled at a mediation by Newark Trial Attorney Antonio Grillo after Partner Raye Futerfas started the lawsuit.