A Denver jury awarded $240,418.23 to Ms. Carol Wilson, who slipped and fell in her hotel bathtub at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Denver, formerly the Adams Mark, resulting in a thoracic vertebrae fracture. Ms. Wilson’s bathroom shower was not equipped with a slip-resistant bathmat, a slip-resistant surface or a safety bar.
The hotel had been inundated with complaints over the 5 months before Ms. Wilson was so seriously injured. Due to the negligence of the Adams Mark, 8 other guests were seriously injured from slipping and falling in the hotel bathtubs in the 5 month period leading up to Ms. Wilson’s injury. Some of the other guests were so severely injured that they had to be taken by ambulance to Denver Health Medical Center. One was knocked unconscious.
Despite an admitted five months of knowledge that 200 hotel bathtubs were unsafe, the Sheraton continued to rent the rooms. Evidence in the case showed the cost of slip-resistant bath mats to be between $7.00 and $17.00 each.
The Denver jury’s verdict included $100,000.00 in punitive damages, finding the Sheraton acted willfully and wantonly, with reckless disregard to the safety of others. The jury also awarded $55,418.23 for lost wages and medical expenses, $50,000.00 for physical impairment, and $35,000.00 for pain and suffering.
Ms. Wilson’s trial in the Denver District Court was presided over by the Honorable Anne Mansfield. Christopher P. Koupal, a partner at Chalat Hatten Koupal & Banker PC, was Ms. Wilson’s lead counsel at trial, and was assisted by attorney Evan P. Banker. The Sheraton hotel made a statutory offer of settlement in the amount of $13,000.00, prior to trial. After the Plaintiff rested her case, Sheraton’s insurance claims adjuster increased its settlement offer to $65,000.00.
Past results are no guarantee of future results.