By JULIET MCSHANNON Special to the Daily Press
In February, Maria Guerrero helps her friend move from an apartment in Marina Harbor Apartments located in Marina Del Rey to another apartment in the same two-story complex.
Unfortunately, Guerrero falls down the stairs and is severely injured. She sues the apartment building owners and asks the court to award her out of pocket medical expenses amounting to $3,297 and punitive damages for pain and suffering, totaling $5,000.
Guerrero tells the court that the communal stairway had to be used in order to move the furniture from one side of the building to the other. She alleges that on that particular day, the sprinklers in the complex were turned on, invading the stairwell and making the stairs wet and slippery. Guerrero had just about finished helping her friend move, when empty suitcase in hand, she slides down the stairs, hurting her back and knee.
Guerrero tells the court that she spent nine hours in an emergency room at Daniel Freedman Hospital and is forced to take two days off work because she cannot sit at the computer, which as an architectural draftsman, she is forced to do.
Marina Harbor Apartments is represented by Sean Nabi, who admits that the sprinklers do wet the stairway, but that there are handrails on both sides. He testified that Guerrero contributed to the accident by “seeing the water and choosing to go down the stairs.”
You be the judge. Who won and what were the damages, if any?
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 9, 2003. Read the original PDF.