SKETCHES OF COURT: Six-figure settlement reached in slip-and-fall trial
In this courtroom sketch Hon. Mark Partnow listens as defendant’s attorney Anthony Marino (standing), of the law offices of Vincent D. McNamara, makes his opening statement in the slip-and-fall trial O’Brien v. Verrazano Owners and FirstService Residential New York.
Dyana O’Brien got a lift home early one morning in February 2014, after snowfalls in recent days had blanketed the city’s streets. She alleges that she found a path from the car to her front door through a break in a curbside snowbank, but lost her footing and was seriously injured in crossing the sidewalk. O’Brien left the scene via ambulance, and faulted the Bay Ridge apartment building’s owner and management companies for negligence. O’Brien was represented by Ray Panek (seated), of the law firm Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek.
Runoff from the snowbank may have refrozen on the sidewalk but Marino claims that his clients had reasonably and properly maintained the area and were not responsible for causing the accident. Among the evidentiary exhibits was a poor-quality Blackberry cellphone image taken by O’Brien’s fiancé, who did not witness the accident but was present at the time. At issue was whether ice was evident.
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’.