A Boston hair salon known as Kay’s, located on Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester, Massachusetts, now owes a Brockton women $500,000.00 after the Appellate Division Court upheld the jury’s 2009 award. Boston personal injury attorney noted that negligence claims such as these, often tried at the District Court level, are then appealed when one side has a legal disagreement with the verdict, such as this case.
The case began in the fall of 2004 when Marie Duvivier, a Brockton woman nearing 60, made an appointment at Kay’s in Dorchester for a sewn-in “weave” process that would address her problem with thinning hair. After arriving, Duvivier was told that the stylist she was scheduled to see was unavailable to do the weave – which involves attaching non-growing hair to natural hair to lengthen and thicken it – and that another stylist would do “a quick weave.”
The quick weave process makes use of glue to enhance the hair but requires that precautions be taken to prevent the glue from seeping into the scalp. The plaintiff argued that no such safeguards were taken. A few days after the hair treatment, Duvivier began experiencing pain in her head and on her scalp and went to the Mattapan Health Center.
To remove the glue, Duvivier’s hair had to be shaved off and, according to testimony, never grew back in several places where the glue had oozed onto the scalp.
On appeal, lawyers for Kay’s salon argued that the verdict should be thrown out. But the Court disagreed. And even though the Court found the $500,000.00 verdict “slightly startling,” the jury award will stand.