$1 Million Settlement in Slip and Fall of Choir Member
Corboy & Demetrio has obtained a $1 million settlement on behalf of a 61-year-old woman who tripped on a stool while exiting church after choir rehearsal at Ingleside Whitfield United Methodist Church in Chicago. The plaintiff was injured on Dec. 15, 2011. As she exited a pew and turned to exit into the main aisle, she tripped and fell. The custodian had been told to remove the stool by the pastor but the choir director allowed it to remain. The plaintiff suffered aggravations of degenerative cervical discs requiring fusions.
The choir director made a warning to everyone at the beginning of the rehearsal about the stool and not to use the main aisle as an exit but did not iterate it after the rehearsal. Plaintiff was late getting to this rehearsal. Since it was the third rehearsal for the Christmas performance, she entered by the side aisle to her assigned seat. She was not present to hear the warning.
Corboy & Demetrio partner Francis Patrick Murphy, who represented the injured choir member, said, “Even God’s House can be dangerous if employees act negligently. Here, the Pastor recognized the danger of leaving a large stool in the main aisle when the lights were dimmed for the final rehearsal and told the custodian to remove it. He did not and someone was catastrophically injured for life.”
