On a cold but clear night in January, a pizza delivery driver was working in Saugerties. Due to icy conditions on an extended driveway, the pizza delivery driver’s vehicle slid off the driveway. He called his brother, who came to help him. When his brother arrived, his vehicle slid off the road and he sustained injuries from a fall on the ice. They called their sister, and when she arrived, she slipped on the ice and was injured. The three siblings called Eli B. Basch to help them hold the owner responsible for what happened to them.
Eli filed a lawsuit against the landlord for the condition and failing to sand, salt, properly plow or otherwise remedy the icy condition on the roadway so that it was safe. Eli was able to prove that there had been ice on the ground for approximately two days prior to the incident and was not properly cared for.
The pizza driver got stuck going to the house to deliver the pizza. When our client got out of the car to push his vehicle free, he fell on the ice, hit the ground hard and injured his knees. When his attempts to free his car did not work, he called his brother to help him.
His brother had a truck and arrived at the scene. He immediately fell hard onto his shoulder when he was getting out of his truck. The condition of the roadway was terrible. The brothers, both injured now, attempted to get the car free. When doing this, the truck slid on the ice and drifted off the road into a wet, icy field. There was no way the brothers were getting the truck out now. With both cars stuck, they called their sister and her boyfriend.
When their sister arrived on the scene, she fell on the ice on got hurt. The three siblings and the boyfriend were able to get the original car free but after failed attempts to get the truck, left it for a tow truck to get the next morning.
Then they went to the Emergency Room. The sister had a sprained right ankle and fractured foot. She was in a soft cast with a walking boot and crutches for about four weeks. The pizza driver sustained contusions of both knees, needed a brace and physical therapy.
The brother with the truck suffered derangement of his left shoulder and contusion of the head and lumbar sprain. He will have permanent loss of range of motion and pain in his left shoulder due to the incident. He is a truck driver for a local produce company, and due to these injuries, he was out of work for a few weeks. He has had physical therapy on his shoulder and multiple cortisone injections since the injury. Later he underwent surgery to the shoulder twice.
The property owner’s insurance did not want to pay our clients for their suffering. However, the owner of the property is responsible for the long roadway and the driveway our clients were stuck on. Eli argued that had the owner properly removed the ice and snow conditions from the road and driveway, our client would have been able to deliver the pizza and be on his way. His brother and sister would have never been called out in the middle of the night to help him and nobody would have gotten hurt.
On the eve of the trial, the insurance company offered a settlement agreement for all three siblings. Client 1, the pizza driver with the injured knees, was awarded $45,000. Client 2, the brother with the pickup truck and injured shoulder, was awarded $250,000. The sister with the sprained ankle and fractured foot was awarded $15,000. The siblings received a combined $310,000 for that night where injuries did not need to happen if the property owner took care of his property.