Landau Injury Law

District of Columbia, United States District Court
Government Building – Premises Liability – Settlement
Settlement: $40,000, including a reduction of a worker’s compensation lien.
Judge: Royce C. Lamberth Settlement Date: 2/2007
Plaintiff’s Attorney(s): Douglas W.K. Landau, Herndon
Age: 47 Sex: F Occupation: Child care director Marital Status: Married

Facts: A government employee was injured in a premises liability claim Washington, D.C., when a defective security door gave way. She claimed defendant had notice of the defect and failed to fix the door or warn her of the potential hazard. Because the premises was owned and operated by the Federal Government, the plaintiff had to bring her case under the Federal Tort Claims Act (”F.T.C.A.”), which limits damages and claims against the government and is tried before a Federal Judge without a jury. The parties settled the case for $40,000 prior to trial.

Plaintiff was the Executive Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Pennsylvania Avenue child care center. The center was located in a government complex. Plaintiff was attempting to open a security door when the door’s pull bar unexpectedly broke away from the door frame. The suit was brought against Defendant United States of America because the FTC is a division of federal government. Plaintiff alleged defendant failed to maintain its premises in a safe condition. She maintained that defendant knew or should have known of the defective door due to a previous injury caused by the security door and that
defendant failed to remedy the defect or warn of the danger. As the Defendant United States was operating, maintaining and giuarding the facility, she came to ABRAMS LANDAU to prosecute her F.T.C.A. premises liability case against the Federal Government. Plaintiff claimed she sustained a substantial shoulder injury that required her to undergo surgical repair. Defendant denied the allegations set forth in plaintiff’s complaint, including liability and proximate cause.

Alleged Injury: Complete full thickness tear in the supraspinatus tendon with retraction of the tendon, mild atrophy of the supraspinatus muscle and hypertrophy of the acromioclavicular joint causing mild impingement on the rotator cuff. Plaintiff underwent surgical repair and was given a 5% disability rating to the right upper extremity. Plaintiff claimed $15,853 in past medical expenses and $2,879 in lost wages.

Insurance Carrier: Self-insured
Expert Witnesses:
Plaintiff : Randall J. Lewis, M.D. – Orthopedist – Washington, DC
Defendant: Thomas F. Ryan III, M.D. – Orthopedist – Chevy Chase, MD

Case Caption: Lustic v. United States of America
Case Number: 04-02018(RCL)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 10:42 am and is filed under Job Accidents, Negligence Cases, Premises liability, Workers Compensation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.