On behalf of Jeff Antin of Antin, Ehrlich & Epstein, LLP, Attorneys at Law posted in Premises Liability on Tuesday, December 3, 2013.
While all injuries can be devastating, the ones that are often hardest to move on from are those that could have been avoided. In New York, businesses work closely with local regulatory entities to ensure complete compliance and prevent harm or injury. When companies fail to abide by regulations, or impede third party organizations from performing necessary duties, innocent victims may be affected.
A family that visited a New Jersey Macy’s alleges that their 10 year old daughter suffered disfigurement when her foot was caught in an improperly functioning escalator; the young girl was said to have lost two toes on one foot.
Macy’s is facing a premises liability suit brought on by the family, and the company that maintains the moving staircase has been named in the lawsuit as well. A third party inspection company has also been sued by the New Jersey borough for alleged negligence given that the escalator’s inspection certificate was at least two weeks past due when the accident took place.
However, the inspection company believes that they shouldn’t be held liable for the accident. They claim that when they went to perform the inspection a Macy’s manager asked the inspectors to leave and stated that the testing was disruptive. In response, they issued a temporary certificate.
The borough believes that the inspectors acted negligently by first granting the temporary certificate, and then by allowing the certificate to expire without repairing or shutting down the escalator. However, they claim that the retail store will be investigated for interrupting and preventing the testing of a malfunctioning escalator that ultimately caused an accident that will have lasting psychological and physical consequences.
Source: North Jersey, “Macy’s escalator accident prompts Paramus to sue inspection company,” Abbott Koloff, Nov. 18, 2013