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This is a good warning for not just city workers but also anyone who has jury duty or is visiting a city building: A city court clerk was injured while sitting on a toilet at the Brooklyn Family Court. NY1 reports that Frank D'Alessandro is suing the city:
D’Alessandro says he was "performing a physical function" when the toilet collapsed, leaving him on the floor with his pants around his ankles.D'Alessandro's lawyer adds, "A person who goes into a city bathroom owned and operated and controlled by the city should have a safe and free environment wherein he can sit down on a toilet bowl without having to inspect it, without having to check everything out, and expect to urinate or defecate in peace without having it collapse into little itty bitty pieces which could have cut him up." Gothamist whole-heartedly agrees: Toilets should not be dangerous, unless you're a little kid, at Welcome to the Johnsons, a Metro-North rider, or a woman. [Via Mase - we love you]
When he went to the doctor, he was told he had four herniated discs. Now he's seeking $5 million from the city.
“One minute I’m going to the bathroom - something that someone does almost every day, if not every day – in a place where you feel safe and don’t have to question if you’re safe, and then the next minute I’m waking up in pain every morning,” said D’Alessandro.
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I'm sure it was just a freak accident, a once in a lifetime thing. He'll only get a few thousand since no judge will find 5 Million an acceptable amount for his injuries, pain and suffing, etc. I would really like to know how much he weighted. Perhaps it was over the amount the toilet was designed for.
Am I the only one wondering whether Mr. D'Alessandro might be a bit hefty? The problem seems to be that he broke a toilet by sitting on it.
He doesn't look super hefty in the NY1 report - looks tall, but not obese. I mean, I'm shocked there aren't more suits like this, given the obesity of Americans these days.
wait, when using a public toilet and defecating, who doesn't check everything out? granted, i'm not checking to see if the toilet is stable, but still, you're checking things out.
and i'm a big proponent of the word "defecate".
I have not, in my travels, made it a habit to check the underside of public toilet bowls for cracks.
He won't get $5 mil, but he'll get something.
And is this a textbook proof of the theorem that Comedy equals Tragedy plus Distance or what?
You know, I heard about this on Air America Radio yesterday during their "Save Your Quarter" segment, where they explain you how crappy the day's NY Post is. Anyway, their commentary on this story was that while the toilet story got big coverage in Monday's post, the reproductive rights march that occurred the day before (with more than 1 million participants) was not given a single mention. Amazing.
It's a funny case, but not a sound one. I'll guess it gets tossed on summary judgment about a year from now. You can't have liability in most cases without negligence. If the City was not reasonably made aware of a defect in the toilet, and if the toilet was adequately maintained, then it was just one of those things. Nobody's fault. And it's a case that on its face deserves an aggressive and active defense.
If the toilet was cracked and the Family Court bosses were too bored and lazy to replace it, then it's good litigation. But that's unlikely to be the case.
Four herniated discs would be a mighty serious injury, if he actually has them. But half the doctors in town will find a herniated disc in a broom handle if you ask them to, so I wouldn't count on it. And, sad to say, $5 million is a pretty average amount to claim in a trivial and pointless lawsuit.
Tort reform: we need it desperately. But don't expect it any time soon with the plaintiffs' lobby the way it is now.
By the way, if we're talking about the same article, then the Post's headline, written by a local blogger, was "Hurt in Line of Doody."