Boston Injury Lawyer Blog

Historically, Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 186, Section 19, has provided residential tenants with recourse if they sustain injuries on premises caused by the landlord's negligence. The law reads that upon notice, a landlord must "exercise reasonable care to correct the unsafe condition" that she is notified of. The law gives potential victims of injuries from landlords two ways of notice: certified mail from the tenant or notice from the board of health or other code enforcement agency. In a case handed down by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court earlier this month, Bishop v. TES Realty Trust, SJC-10696 (March 1, 2011), the protections are now extended to commercial tenants. This case is of interest because the tenant rented the entire building and the landlord's defense was that they had no responsibility; that "the tenant should be deemed to have 'caused' an unsafe condition by failing to repair it."

In the Bishop case, the plaintiff notified the landlord of a defective roof. After leaks from the roof caused parts of the ceiling to cave in and injure her, she sued the landlord. The trial court ruled that because she was the tenant, she did not have protection under the statute. The Supreme Judicial Court, however, found that "the [tenant's] evidence was sufficient to support a jury finding that the [landlord] defendants committed a breach of their statutory duty to remedy an unsafe condition under [MGL Chapter 186] § 19, and that their breach of duty was a substantial contributing cause of the plaintiff's injuries."

Massachusetts is home to plenty of big box stores. Boston and its surrounding suburbs have Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Target and Lowe's, just to name a few. So what happens if you suffer personal injury at one of these stores? What if you slip and fall, have medical bills or suffer lost wages as a result of your personal injuries? You're not alone. The Boston personal injury attorneys at the Law Office of Neil Burns have helped many clients recover after being injured at a big box store, and we can help you, too.

The first thing to realize is that once a Boston personal injury attorney settles your claim with one of these large stores, the stores will generally always require that settlement to remain confidential. You see, these stores do not want to report how many cases they settle, or how many people are injured in their stores. As a result, once they agree to settle your case, they make claimants and their attorney first agree to keep the terms of the settlement confidential.

Continue reading "Establishing Negligence for Massachusetts Slip and Fall Cases" »

The Boston Red Sox are safe, but Massachusetts homeowners should beware. The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently found a Massachusetts homeowner liable when a houseguest was injured on their property after being struck by a ball from a softball game being played in their yard. The personal injury attorneys at the Law Office of Neil Burns want Boston area residents to practice safe habits as the warm weather retreats, and realize that serious personal injuries can occur in homes, cars, and other areas where we tend to feel safe and perhaps let our guard down.

In this case, a houseguest was siting on a porch talking with the homeowners. Unfortunately, she was hit by a softball from a game being played in the homeowner's small yard and suffered a serious head injury. The guest sued for damages but the trial court said that, as a matter of law, the homeowner did not owe the guest a duty. But the Appeals Court noted that, in moving for summary judgment, the defendant must prove that there "is no genuine issue of material fact." The issue became was the danger "open and obvious" to the plaintiff or was there a "duty to warn" the plaintiff of the danger. The Appeals Court said that a jury would need to decide if the homeowner "owed the plaintiff a duty of care" by stopping the game or warning the guests.

The 13-page decision is Judge, et al. v. Carrai, et al., No. 09-P-1576, Appeal Court. September 24, 2010.

Continue reading "Massachusetts Homeowner Liable for Softball Game Injury" »

Just today, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, sitting in Boston, has handed down new law regarding slip and fall injuries involving snow and ice. It used to be that the duty of care owed by landowners to lawful visitors on their property did not include any obligation to remove snow and ice that had accumulated naturally. Now, however, that has changed. The attorneys at the Boston Law Office of Neil Burns know the importance of staying up-to-date and current regarding applicable laws affecting our clients.

Under the new case, there is no longer the "natural accumulation" rule. That rule, which essentially said, there to have a personal injury case in Massachusetts as a result of falling on snow or ice, there must be an "unnatural accumulation." Unnatural accumulations were found in cases such as when water from a man made pipe drained into a driveway and froze.

Continue reading "New Slip and Fall Injury Law " »

Located in Boston, Lawyers Weekly of Massachusetts recently reviewed civil verdicts rendered in Superior Courts in Boston and throughout Massachusetts. The review showed that the deck is heavily stacked against tort plaintiffs, particularly those who go to trial in Norfolk County and other Boston suburban communities. The Boston attorneys at the Law Office of Neil Burns recommend that those clients considering taking their personal injury, car accident or other injury case to trial listen to the advice of their attorney. A lot of factors must be weighed before taking a case to trial, and the rate of success is certainly one large factor to consider.

The Massachusetts newspaper for lawyers, Lawyers Weekly, recently determined that of the civil jury trial verdicts in Norfolk Superior Court in 2009, only five of the 35 personal injury verdicts in 2009 favored plaintiffs. The county's 14 percent success rate was 22 percentage points lower than Essex County jury verdicts, which had the highest rate of plaintiffs' verdicts, and 12 points behind the statewide average of 26 percent.

The only region in Massachusetts with a lower success rate than Norfolk County was the Cape and Islands, which saw eight of its nine tort trials decided in favor of defendants.

Continue reading "Trying the Negligence Case in Massachusetts" »

Boston is a large tourist destination for people inside and outside of Boston, Massachusetts. As such, hotels in Boston are numerous, as are injuries resulting from those hotel stays. The injury attorneys at the Boston Law Office of Neil Burns can help if you are injured while staying in Boston, Massachusetts. Some of the injuries that occur while staying in Boston area hotels include falling in the bathroom or shower/tub areas.

An example of an injury occurring at a hotel in Massachusetts involves the case of Deloria v. The Druker Company, Ltd. (Lawyers Weekly No. 81-345-10)). The case involved the question of whether there was "the existence of a danger," concerning a hotel's bathtub area. In the case, "The plaintiff argues on appeal that the motion judge erred in concluding as a matter of law that the raised floor of the hotel bathtub was an open and obvious condition and that there was no genuine issue of material fact as to whether the condition of the bathtub was unsafe and defective. Guided by our decision in Quinn v. Morganelli, [73 Mass. App. Ct. 50 (2008)], we agree with the plaintiff that the jury reasonably could have found that the bathtub posed a danger to the plaintiff, and that the defendant knew or reasonably should have known of that danger. ... The deposition testimony of the plaintiff about her failure to perceive the change in level between the floor of the bathroom and the bathtub, her failure to notice the warning posted, and the report authored by the plaintiff's expert, would reasonably allow the jury to draw such a conclusion.

"Reasonable jurors could also differ in their opinion as to whether the bathtub configuration constituted an 'open and obvious' danger. Although the change in level between the floor of the bathroom and tub was certainly open to inspection, we cannot say as a matter of law that, upon stepping out the tub after a shower, the lengthy step down would be obvious without visual cues alerting one to that fact. Consequently, the plaintiff may proceed on both failure to warn and failure to remedy theories. ..."

A Massachusetts Court sitting in Worcester decided a case on March 22, 2010 involving The Home Depot and a person who was injured while shopping at the store. It is important to have a Boston personal injury attorney with extensive experience in handling injury claims at large retail stores, and the Boston Law Office of Neil Burns has been handling such claims since 1985.

In the case, a plaintiff suffered personal injuries when a display sign for garage doors manufactured by the defendant, Clopay Building Products, Inc., fell on him while he was shopping at Home Depot.

But the Court ruled against the injured plaintiff, holding that he could not recover damages from Clopay Building Products, Inc., because he did not demonstrate that Clopay Building Products, Inc., breached any duty to him. The Court noted a basic rule of injury law, called negligence, in saying that "'To prevail on a negligence claim, a plaintiff must prove that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of reasonable care, that the defendant breached this duty, that damage resulted, and that there was a causal relation between the breach of the duty and the damage." In this case, the plaintiff failed to show that Clopay Building Products, Inc. owed him any duty. Thus, while the plaintiff's case could proceed against The Home Depot, or the injured person could continue suing The Home Depot, the Court dismissed the case as against Clopay Building Products, Inc.

Continue reading "Injury at Massachusetts Home Depot " »

In the Boston suburb of Worcester, Massachusetts, a Superior Court Judge found the nightclub owner 30 Worcester Center, Inc., responsible for injuries a patron sustained while at the club.

Such was the case recently when a 16-year-old girl was punched in the face by another patron at a nightclub owned by 30 Worcester Center, Inc. In that case the Judge found that the defendant nightclub owner was negligent and should be ordered to pay the plaintiff damages of $14,000. The Judge found the nightclub was negligent in the following respect:

Continue reading "Night Club Injuries to Massachusetts Residents " »

In the Boston suburb of Salem, Massachusetts, a jury recently decided that a plaintiff who slipped and fell in a parking lot while going to Dunkin' Donuts was not entitled to money damages.

Hoey v. Argeros Realty Trust Court/case no.: Salem Superior Court, No. ESCV2007-00259. Boston slip and fall attorney Neil Burns notes that, "It's always tough to speculate regarding jury's decisions, but the plaintiff in that case did not file her claim until some four years after she fell. You always want to talk to an attorney soon after suffering and injury from an accident. Waiting four years could not have helped."

Continue reading "Delayed Massachusetts Slip and Fall Claim " »

A Massachusetts woman interested in renting an apartment near Boston, scheduled an appointment to visit the building. When she arrived, she walked to the back of the building to find the defendant and the unit she was interested in renting. She then fell down an unguarded stairway and was injured, suffering personal injuries. The women sued the building owner, and according to the lawsuit, she claimed the stairway violated Massachusetts state building code. "It is important to note," says Boston personal injury attorney Thiadora Pina, "that the woman can still sue the landlord for her fall down the stairs and subsequent injuries. According to this decision, however, her cause of action, or what she can sue under, is now limitied."

Continue reading "Would-Be Massachusetts Tenant Can't Sue Landlord For Fall Down Stairs " »

Choose a qualified lawyer if you have been injured as the result of the negligence of a landlord, restaurant, parking lot owner and other private business owner. These cases include slip and fall injuries, burn injuries, and many other type of injuries our clients are the victims of.

Attorney Neil Burns has represented families and loved ones who are victims as a result of negligent maintenance of premises for decades. Massachusetts law protects victims who are injured as a result of accidents caused by the negligence of land and business owners: especially when they knew or should have know about the condition causing the injury.

Often our clients need to recover damages for pain and suffering, loss of earning capacity, hospital and medical bills, and emotional losses.

We are experienced in working with clients who have suffered injuries from a host of accident sites - buildings where they live or work, stores where they shop, inadequate security, and falling products. We work aggressively to gather information and fight the insurance companies who often blame the victim.

Slip and fall victims in Massachusetts are the beneficiary of new law. Massachusetts has adopted a new standard regarding premises liability law with regard to grocery stores, for example, and other self-service retailers. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, the state's highest court, sitting in Boston, Massachusetts, decided Sheehan v. Roche Brothers Supermarkets, Inc., which lightens the victim's burden of proof in slip and fall cases.

In this case, a supermarket customer fell after slipping on a grape. She was in the hospital for a month. The trial court followed the law which is that a property owner must maintain the property in "reasonably safe condition in view of all of the circumstances" including the changes of injury. This has been interpreted to be that property owners are responsible only when they knew or should have known of a dangerous condition, and had sufficient warning to fix it.

Continue reading "Boston Supreme Judicial Court Updates Slip and Fall Law " »