Our client was a 67-year-old woman from Framingham reporting for work at the nursing home where she worked as a cleaner. As she walked from the parking lot to the entrance, she slipped and fell. She landed on her left side, injuring her shoulder, wrist, neck, and back. There were no witnesses to her fall.

She suffered an extremely-difficult-to-diagnose labral tear that required surgery to repair. A preexisting shoulder injury further complicated her case. Both her MRI and EEG showed degenerative changes to her left shoulder.

The defense argued that the injury was not sustained in the fall. Our argument was that the fall was sustained during a shift change where there was a higher expectation that people would be coming and going, thus creating a duty upon the nursing home to make sure the parking lot and doorways were safe for people to walk into work.

Our client received payments from two separate insurers as a result of our legal action:

• The cleaning company’s worker’s compensation insurer paid her lost wages and medical bills
• The nursing home’s insurer paid out a pain-and-suffering award

When the worker’s compensation insurer placed a lien on her file, we successfully reduced it and had it approved by the Industrial Accident Board through a Section 15 Petition. This matter was settled prior to trial at mediation for $74,000.00.