Crouch and Schuetz Win Summary Judgment in DuPage County, Avert $500K Exposure

Proving the truism that a strong deposition of the plaintiff is the best tool for winning a dispositive motion in a premises liability case, Kate Crouch and Steve Schuetz recently earned summary judgment in a DuPage County matter involving a slip and fall on a wet floor at Plaintiff’s workplace.  Significant injuries and lost wages were alleged, and subsequent acknowledgments that the possibility of water intrusion from the front door of the premises was already known presented a substantial obstacle.

Despite these difficulties identified during our early investigative efforts, we were able to steer the plaintiff into testimony that was highly damaging to her case through deposition questions lifted largely from the case law and our past successes in premises cases.  Plaintiff could not identify the substance that caused her to fall, could not say how long it was present, and could not identify how it came to be present.  While she had “beliefs” and “assumptions” about facts giving rise to causation, we secured her agreement that she did not really know whether any of those beliefs or assumptions were true.

Plaintiff’s counsel could not rehabilitate his client, and he could not develop any evidence to establish causation against our client, a construction company.  After extensive briefing and argument, the Court granted our motion.  Our client was thrilled to eliminate this exposure, particularly after seeing Plaintiff’s outsized demand of $500,000.00.

Our firm enters each premises liability case with the same goal: assess whether plaintiff knows and can prove why he fell and always target a dispositive motion.  A witness’s own testimony admitting their lack of knowledge gives us a solid basis for summary judgment, as ably demonstrated by Crouch and Schuetz here.