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Sat 8 Jan, 2011 09:39 pm
A letter that was posted yesterday arrived today. The writer was a young lawyer in a firm with offices in Newton, Worcester, Springfield, Northampton, Pittsfield and North Adams, MA.
According to the letter, sometime "on or about April 11, 2010," a woman had a trip and fall "while walking along the sidewalk adjacent to" my house. " . . . our client was caused to trip on overgrown grass, foliage and/or branches from your lawn and tree-belt."
I suspect this event never happened. The date is the Sunday following Easter. (I asked my daughter if she remembered whether we celebrated Easter at my house or hers. She did not remember. I don't either. I write that to illustrate the difficulty in remembering dates.)
However, thanks to the internet, I could find her house -- across the street and one half block to the south -- and read her MySpace and FaceBook pages. I could also learn about the attorney, who was married in NYC this summer as a 30 year old. He previously worked at a firm in NYC.
There is no grass in April in Western Massachusetts. At least, it is not long enough to trip over.
There are two large, dying maples in my front lawn. They shed limbs regularly. Twice, the town tree warden was called by the police to move the limbs which they left in what I would call the beltway which I think the lawyer called the tree belt. The state highway department has always removed the branches. Although memory is not exact, I do not think there were branches in the beltway last fall and winter.
I went to the police and asked whether a complaint/report had been made of a trip-and-fall at or near my house "on or about April 11, 2010." The request had to be made in writing. I was careful with my language.
I tended to be home on Sundays, my only day off as I work six days per week. I could have spent a great deal of the day in the room in which I am now, at my computer, below a window which faces out on to the street. I spend as much time in the kitchen, at the back of the house. I was not aware of anyone falling in front of my house, although I generally do see passersby when I am at the computer.
I also have never seen the woman who is suing me.
The interesting thing is that the one time I was actually impaneled on a jury was for a trip-and-fall. The woman in the case was about the same age as the women accusing me: 61. The woman in the case was Greek. She had tripped in the offices of a utility company on her way to pay a bill. It was winter and she wore boots.
The young attorney who represented her showed the jury a photocopy of the woman's appointments with the doctor. We were not told what branch of medicine he practiced, nor what he treated her for, only that she had had a series of appointments. The attorney, who the chairman of the jury said walked about with a towel to dry behind his ears, also showed us the scuffed and worn boots the woman had worn.
We, the jury, believed that the woman may have been injured but that the attorney had not proved her case.
@plainoldme,
I'm sorry to hear that, pom.
@plainoldme,
I would be too.
I'm famous to myself for falling, and it has never occurred to me to sue anyone for that. As a landscape architect, I used to be the most paranoid designer possible, in that I always indicated to homeowners what were possible dangers on their properties and designed to fix them, as people do sue.
Do you remember what you folks had for easter dinner?
Any chance you posted here about it?
@plainoldme,
Wow, that's outrageous! Don't they have to prove that she fell due to your
overgrown foliage?
I would write that shyster back that you religiously cut your grass every week
and you trim any foliage right away as you're prone to trip yourself. Therefore, you sympathize with the shyster's client in falling, however, it certainly wasn't due to your negligence as your yard is immaculate and
always kept in impeccable condition. In fact, some other neighbor's
commented on your beautifully kept yard. I'd bullshit the heck out of him.
What an opportunist!!
Well that's tort law in the United States. If POM has liability insurance her insurer will defend the case: if they loose (or more likely settle) the insurance company will pay court costs and the cost of the settlement. Insurance rates and costs will go up. If the plantiff loses she will be out nothing and her attorney will have done some work for nothing. If POM doesn't have liability insurance she will be out the cost of her legal defense, even if she wins in court. The system works in such a way that defending such a case without the services of an attorney is usually very risky.
An unfortunate situation.
@CalamityJane,
If there was no complaint filed by the plaintiff, then a case might be made that there was no incident.
In April, the grass is seldom green, let alone grown. That early in the month, the trees are often still in bud.
Certainly, if I had been at home all day, which is entirely possible, a woman falling in front of my house might have drawn my attention.
@CalamityJane,
I do realize that the lawyer's language must be vague but I feel it is far too vague.
@plainoldme,
The city, police, highway department, and/or the tree warden should have records of this for you to check on for the dates to see if it was around that time.
Quote:There are two large, dying maples in my front lawn. They shed limbs regularly. Twice, the town tree warden was called by the police to move the limbs which they left in what I would call the beltway which I think the lawyer called the tree belt. The state highway department has always removed the branches. Although memory is not exact, I do not think there were branches in the beltway last fall and winter.
I looked back at your posts at around April 11, 2010 and it was mostly the usual political commentary -- didn't see in the brief display of the text any mention of the holiday or visiting family.
If you were to scroll back to the posts around that date, maybe they will ring a bell for you to refresh your memories of what was happening then.
@georgeob1,
In Massachusetts, a homeowner must be fully insured or else he can not hold a mortgage.
Several years ago, my other house was vandalized. I naively filed for recompense. An adjustor came to my house, assessed the damage and I was sent a check for $8,000.
A year later, my insurance company dropped me and my house was put into the high risk pool. At the time, I said that I never hung a sign reading, "Welcome, vandals."
Again, I think the incident never happened. The only reason for this person to cross the street and to walk down this side might have been to get to the ice cream stand, a few doors down. However, the stand is seasonal and not open that early in the year.
Furthermore, the woman is morbidly obese. From her photo, I would say in excess of 300 pounds. I doubt that she would walk anywhere.
@plainoldme,
Then it is very fortunate you are so insured. It can be difficult to defend yourself from such suits. Your only real defense is to force the plantiff to prove the extent of her injuries: it is very hard to prove that such an event never happened. In any event the insurance company is probably very proficient at managing all that.
Insurance is a two way contract and both parties are free to revise the terms at renewal. Insurers generally react to actual claims and reassess their risk factors accordingly. It is a standard, and necessary (if they are to survive) business practice. I have a very good long term driving record, but one year I was involved in two relatively minor collisions, one in a parking lot, that were both my fault. I quickly found myself in the bad boys club with much higher permiums - it lasted two years. I was much more careful afterwards and it hasn't returned.
Good luck.
@plainoldme,
Can you clarify adjacent to your house? Is this a public sidewalk? Is this sidewalk on your property? If it is not your property how can she sue you when it is public? property? We have bylaws here that state, for example, you must clear the snow from public sidewalks near your home within 48 hours, but I doubt a person could launch a lawsuit unless you showed complete disregard or actually caused a hazard. Wouldn't any flagrant problems have to be documented first? or at all? Where are the photos showing the hazards either before or after the event was to have taken place?
If it is your property, why was she on/in it? Can you counter sue for trespassing? Or can you get some clarification as to what duty a homeowner has to clear impediments and other obstructions in or on their own yards?
I guess what I'm having problems with is how can someone walk on your property without permission, and still have the gall to make a complaint when they have no business being there in the first place.
@Butrflynet,
That's a good idea. I immediately looked at my pocket date book. I was in the middle of taking the beekeeping course, which met on Sundays over several months but there was no session on that Sunday. The date is blank in my book.
Unfortunately you have two choices. Defend it yourself or turn it over to your insurance company. Defending it yourself will take tremendous emotional (and potentially financial) energy. Turning it over to your insurance company may result in a settlement that results in you being dropped. Not that I'm saying anything you don't already know, but I'd probably turn it over to the insurance company and hope for the best.
@Ceili,
I would guess that there are shades of meaning as to what is considered private and public property.
I live on a state highway, near the edge of town. The two dying trees I wrote about are far enough from the road to exempt the state or the town from jurisdiction over them. I know this to be true because when I had the home inspection, the inspector suggested that I might consider having the trees removed, although prevailing winds meant that the trees would not fall on my house. (All the maples along the road are unhealthy.) I had two tree removal people estimate on the cost of removal. There was a $1,000 difference between the two but I could afford neither. In the three years I have lived here, three large pieces have broken off from the trees during storms. Hwever, there was no breakage during the early spring.
Homeowners are obligated to keep the sidewalk clear. Many towns ticket homeowners for not clearing the snow on the sidewalk that fronts their homes as it is a public right of way.
If she were to lose this suit, it is possible that I could sue her for harassment. Georgeob says that it is not possible to prove the event did not occur. Were it possible to prove that, I could possibly sue her for fraud.
I just don't want a repeat of the situation I had at the last house, the vandals and the high risk insurance pool.
Sorry to hear this, Pom. Our current system was designed by the accident lawyers, manipulated by the insurance companies to regain any loses and benefits a few con-artists, so the rest of us are doomed. Can't offer any legal advice, but I hope it all works out okay for you, although no matter what it will suck up a lot of your time and energy gathering your defense.
@plainoldme,
plainoldme wrote:I just don't want a repeat of the situation I had at the last house, the vandals and the high risk insurance pool.
You have homeowner's insurance precisely for cases like this. Your rates may go up if you make a claim, but is that worse than paying legal fees and a possible adverse judgment out of your own pockets?
If I were in your position, I'd immediately contact my insurance agent and make a claim. Let your insurer take it from there. And remember, your policy requires you to inform your insurer promptly, so the clock is ticking.
@JPB,
With the sort of money I make, I am going to turn it over to my insurance company, but only after I learn whether or not a complaint was ever filed with the police.
Honestly, if a 300 pound woman had a fall in front of my house, there would have been a commotion.
@Green Witch,
Thank you, greenie. You wrote the truth, describing the history of our legal system to perfection.
@joefromchicago,
Right, but, the mail came late Saturday afternoon. I immediately went to the police station to see whether a report had been filed.
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