Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Gateway Cathedral
A Staten Island Judge has dismissed a case brought by Island resident Nora Sadowski against the Gateway Cathedral located in Tottenville. Ms. Sadowski was assaulted by a mentally disabled attendee of a Christmas music and dance show held at the Cathedral on December 2, 2006. Ms. Sadowski was seated in front of a group of mentally disabled people who were there to see the show. Soon after the show started, a person behind Ms. Sadowski hit her in the head, in what she described as a "big bang." she was taken to the nurses station and an accident report was filled out. Afterward, Ms. Sadowski was diagnosed with bulging and herniated discs, requiring three surgeries.
A lawsuit was bought on behalf of the Ms. Sadowski against Gateway Cathedral, claiming that the Cathedral failed to exercise reasonable care in preventing the assault from occurring. The attorneys for Gateway Cathedral asked the Judge to dismiss the case, arguing that the event was so sudden and unforeseen that the Cathedral could do nothing to prevent it from occurring. Testimony of the parties involved in the lawsuit showed that no incidents similar to Ms. Sadowski's ever happened inside the Cathedral before. The Judge agreed with the Cathedral's attorneys and dismissed the case, ruling that Gateway Cathedral wasn't legally bound to take special measures to prevent it.
The Judge's ruling was based on the concept of notice. Before someone can be held liable for negligence for a defective or dangerous condition, they must first have received ample notice to correct the defective or dangerous condition or take precautions to prevent an accident from occurring.
Notice is most easily described using the example of a slip and fall on grapes on the floor of a supermarket. When customers are sorting through the produce, loose grapes tend to fall on the floor. Even if a grocery clerk was standing by to sweep every 5 minutes, grapes would still fall to the floor. If a customer slipped and fell on a grape that was just dropped to the floor, the supermarket could not be held liable as they did not have notice of the dangerous condition, namely the grape. If it was shown that the grape that the customer fell on was on the floor for such a long time that the store should have known about it and kept the area clean, then they would have received the required notice and a negligence claim can be brought. This can be proven by describing the grape, most commonly in that it was turning brown as if it was there on the floor for a long time.
If you ever suffer an injury in a supermarket, it is important that you look around and examine what you fell on. Take pictures on your cell phone, make sure that they fill out an accident report (pdf)describing the scene just how you found it. If you don't investigate immediately, all your evidence will be swept away after the store manager calls for a clean up on the aisle where you fell.
