Morrison Mahoney Partner John Knight and Associate John Prendergast recently obtained a defense verdict following a four-day jury trial in Rockingham County Superior Court.
The plaintiff sustained a significant knee injury when he slipped and fell on an allegedly wet dance floor in our client’s restaurant/bar on Hampton Beach, suffering a dislocated left knee and torn ligaments. The plaintiff argued that the defendant was negligent in allowing patrons to have drinks on the dance floor, which allegedly led to spills in the area where the plaintiff fell. In closing argument, plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury to award his client $100,000. At trial, John and John developed substantial evidence that the plaintiff actually fell while he was roughhousing and attempting to pick up a large male friend, causing the friend to fall on the plaintiff’s knee in the process. Eyewitness testimony and the plaintiff’s own medical records, wherein he had reported falling while dancing with a friend, supported the fundamental defense position that the plaintiff’s own negligence caused the accident. The jury rendered a defense verdict following a brief deliberation.
