Reading Terminal Market faces lawsuit over slip-and-fall incident

A Philadelphia woman is suing the Reading Terminal Market and its owners for injuries she claims to have sustained after slipping and falling at the Center City, Philadelphia business.

Philadelphia attorney Neil M. Shukovsky, of the Allen L. Rothenberg law firm, filed the premises liability complaint Aug. 9 at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on behalf of Katherine Williams, and her husband, Theodore Williams.

The defendants listed in the suit are Reading Terminal Market Corp., Reading Terminal Market Merchant’s Association, the Pennsylvania Convention Authority, and Iovine Bros., Inc.

The convention authority owns the property where the alleged incident took place, and the Iovine Brothers Produce stand is precisely where the fall took place inside of the expansive marketplace.

According to the complaint, Katherine Williams was walking in the vicinity of the produce stand inside the market on Nov. 25, 2009, when she suddenly fell on an unforeseen wet substance existing on the floor.

As a result of her fall, Katherine Williams sustained “right knee patellofemoral syndrome with medial meniscal tear and MCL strain requiring Cortisone and Synvisc injections with doctor’s recommendation for a surgical procedure and right ankle sprain, injury to her body as a whole, as well as a severe shock to her nerves and nervous system and was otherwise bruised, lamed and disordered, some or all of which may be permanent in nature,” the lawsuit claims.

The complaint states that Katherine Williams has suffered financially as a result of the incident, since her injuries required her to spend considerable sums of money on medical attention.

She has also suffered a “loss of the enjoyment of her usual duties, life’s pleasures and activities and a shortening of her life expectancy to her great detriment and loss,” the suit claims.

The complaint accuses the defendants of negligence and recklessness for allowing a dangerous condition to exist on the premises, failing to give business patrons notice of the dangerous condition, in the form of signs or barricades, and failing to promptly and adequately clean, clear and/or maintain the floor of the premises.

Katherine Williams seeks judgment against the defendants in an amount in excess of $50,000.

Her husband, Theodore, has a loss of consortium count in the lawsuit, in which he claims he has been, and may in the future be, deprived of his wife’s services and companionship because of her injuries. He, too, demands judgment in a sum in excess of $50,000.

The non-jury matter has not yet been scheduled for an arbitration hearing.

The case number is 110801509.