TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) – An appeals court has revived a lawsuit brought by a man wearing Timberlands who slipped at an Atlantic City casino/resort pool and fell.
The New Jersey Appellate Decision ruled against Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City on July 9 in a personal injury case brought by Paul Crook, who was attending a liquor industry convention in 2015.
It was held in the Pool After Dark – a nightclub with a pool in the middle. Crook said he slipped on a step that was wet because it was so humid in the room.
“When (a security guard) asked how it happened, he looked down and saw I was wearing boots,” Crook testified. “I had on Tims. ‘That’s why we don’t allow people to wear boots,’ and I said nobody told us.”
One of Crook’s experts, a consulting engineer, testified that wet marble treads created a dangerous condition, but the trial court granted summary judgment to Harrah’s anyway.
The trial court found Harrah’s had no actual or constructive notice of the wet steps.
“First and foremost, a factfinder could reasonably infer the step plaintiff slipped on was wet. Plaintiff said it was wet,” the appellate court ruled.
“Moreover, a reasonable factfinder could also infer from the statement security personnel made to plaintiff and plaintiff’s co-worker, particularly considering the context in which the statements were made, that the condition was recurring and posed a danger to patrons wearing boots.”