Winter Storm Uri, Texas
A tenant fractured her ankle on ice outside her apartment door and argued that an unlevel, poorly drained breezeway rendered the accumulation unnatural rather than natural. She designated four experts, including a life care planner and an economist projecting medical exposure of up to $1.69 million, and had secured admissions from witnesses and other tenants.
We took the file over mid-discovery, after mediation had failed, and moved for summary judgment on the legal question underneath the plaintiff's fact dispute rather than litigating the facts themselves.
Take-nothing judgment. The court held that a failure to mitigate drainage is passive negligence at most, and that neither exception to the natural-accumulation rule applied. Dismissed with prejudice.
Apartment Complex Property Manager - TX
Plaintiffs brought a personal injury claim against the property manager and sought to have their claims measured against a standard other than the one premises liability requires.
We held the claims to the correct standard and moved for summary judgment on that basis rather than litigating the underlying facts.
Summary judgment granted in favor of the property manager.
Residential Property Management Company - CA
A residential property management company was named in a personal injury suit brought by a married couple, on a theory that did not survive contact with the record.
We worked the evidence and the deposition testimony to establish that our client bore no responsibility for the alleged injuries, and pressed for dismissal rather than a nuisance-value resolution.
Dismissed with prejudice.
Past results are not a guarantee or prediction of the outcome of any future matter. Every case is decided on its own facts. Matters described here have been anonymized, and client and carrier identities omitted, to protect confidentiality.
