This morning I deposed a witness on a slip and fall case. The case involves an employee going to work and falling on an icy sidewalk at a big downtown building. My client was called into a training on cold, snowy Saturday. Not a usual workday for this business. One of the walkways was not cleared. You know where this is going. She fell on an icy walkway.
Defendant Witness For A Slip And Fall
The Defense called a HR director from my clients employer to testify the employees were supposed to go into and out of a certain garage. They wished to establish my client is somehow required to use certain entrances to enter and leave the building.
My Position
My position is there is no requirement to enter from a particular spot and that it doesn’t alleviate the landlord from taking care of the property. Let’s keep in mind the property is a multi multi million dollar office tower. Cleaning up on a Saturday should not be a big deal. My client stated she wasn’t required to use a particular entrance. It is a strange Defense position. But I get it. Must argue something.
The Slip and Fall Deposition
Ok, so to the deposition. The Defense wanted to use this witness to say my client had to use an entrance and was trained to use it by another employee. Why the other employee wasn’t testifying became readily apparent.
The Defense did not know that their witness has bad blood with the other employee who allegedly did the training. I’m doing my best to paraphrase, but here are the highlights about what this witness said about he woman who supposedly did the training:
- She is manipulative
- She is a liar
- She gave me PTSD
- She caused issues for the entire company
- Most days she did her job but not all days
- She was the person in the locker room that nobody wanted to be around and caused problems.
Make The Building Safe
This witness also told me nothing prevented my client from parking where she wanted. She expected the landlord to make the building safe from ice and snow. In addition, their witness agreed if the landlord made the property safe she wouldn’t be here this morning answering questions for a lawyer, lol. This witness agreed she wasn’t physically there for the trainings and didn’t know what took place.
I’m looking forward to getting a complete copy of the employment records of the problematic employee. It will be hard for them to argue one of their main witnesses is believable when a witness they called slammed her. Slip and falls are tricky cases. I work on slip and falls daily and litigate cases.
Consultations are always free at Dettman Law and my email is bdettman@dettmanlawgroup.com
