SKETCHES OF COURT: Slip-and-fall case heard in Brooklyn court
In this courtroom sketch, Hon. Debra Silber listens as defense attorney Paul Clark (standing), of the law firm Wade Clark Mulcahy, cross-examines a witness for the plaintiff in the premises liability trial Tompkins v. Larstand. Also representing defendants in the trial are Eugene Boulé and Patricia Wik (far right) of the law firm Wilson Elser.
In a late evening in June 2012, the plaintiff tripped and fell as she walked with a companion by an entrance to a department store and a commercial eatery on the south side of East 58th Street in Manhattan between Madison and Fifth avenues. The plaintiff was taken by ambulance to a hospital. During the liability phase of the bifurcated trial, the plaintiff alleged that her fall was due to a sidewalk that wasn’t level. She is represented by attorney Arthur Leslie Salmon (seated, third from right), of trial counsel to Wyatt Law Firm.
While the defendants claimed that the sidewalk was in reasonably safe condition and sought to implicate the plaintiff as not paying attention while walking, the case was resolved, after summations, for $1.25 million last week in Kings County Civil Term. Court reporter Hyacinth McKen (seated, center) transcribed the proceedings.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.