SKETCHES OF COURT: Defendants’ verdict reached in premises liability trial
In this courtroom sketch, Hon. Carolyn Wade listens as plaintiff’s attorney Raquel Greenberg (standing), of Greenberg Law, draws the jury’s attention to an evidentiary photograph on the stand during the premises liability trial Wan Liew v. Walber 82nd St Assocs., ABC Management Corp., and Star Industrial Service Co., Inc. At issue was the determination of liability.
Deborah Wan Liew had been working as a manager for her husband’s fossil business for many years, out of its basement office space. She complained to the building’s landlords of a faulty subsurface steam pipe, for which they hired a plumbing contractor to enact repairs. Subsequently, Wan Liew claimed that she stepped into an uncovered pipe trough and suffered serious and permanent injury to her left foot and ankle as a result of the January 2011 fall, faulting the defendants for failure to adequately safeguard the area of repair.
Jose Gomez (at right), of the law firm Harris King Fodera & Correia, represented contractor Star Industrial. Walber and ABC, respectively the premises owner and property manager, were represented by Joseph Porretto (second from right), of the law firm Gialleonardo, McDonald & Turchetti.
Per their attorneys, the defendants maintained that Wan Liew was the sole cause of her accident. They noted that Wan Liew had seen the hole, and they maintained that the condition was open and obvious. The co-defendants alleged that the other had the responsibility of covering the exposed pipe, though Gomez challenged Wan Liew’s allegation that the pipe was uncovered.
The jury ruled against the plaintiff, finding no fault on the part of the defendants in the trial that resolved in Kings County Civil Term.
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