Phila. property owner sued by mother of girl who sustained brain injuries after fall from window

The mother of a 3-year-old girl who sustained traumatic brain injuries after she fell 30

feet onto a hard, concrete surface during an incident at their residence earlier this year has filed a personal injury claim against the property owner and those who were in the midst of upgrading the home.

Philadelphia resident Rahnisha Neal is suing on behalf of her minor child, who the suit claims fell out of a window at their home back on Jan. 9 of this year.

Neal was in the kitchen at the time and heard her daughter fall on the concrete walkway directly outside of the kitchen, at which time the plaintiff ran outside to comfort the crying child.

The complaint, which was filed Aug. 14 at Philadelphia’s Common Pleas Court by attorneys Stewart J. Eisenberg and Todd A. Schoenhaus, of the firm Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, names as defendants 1260 Housing Development Corp., 1260 Housing LLC, Arch VI Housing Development Corp., Arch VI Temple N. Gratz Street L.P., Columbus Property Management & Development Inc., Complete Carpentry General Construction Inc., McDonald Building Co. LLC, B.A.M. Drywall Inc. and Shone Lumber.

The lawsuit blames the various defendants for failing to ensure that the window at the home, which was in the midst of renovation, was properly guarded against potential accidents, particularly those involving children, since the defendants were aware a child lived in the home.

According to the complaint, the 1260 defendants, which are in control of the building at 1534 N. Gratz St. in Philadelphia, were in the process of restoring and rehabilitating the affordable family housing property at the time of the accident.

The other various defendants had been contracted out to perform the upgrade work.

The plaintiff claims in her suit that a third floor window in the home, the one in which her daughter eventually fell from, was sold and installed without any child-proof type guards, stops or other safety devices.

As a result of the fall, Neal’s child sustained severe traumatic brain injury with multiple skull fractures requiring an emergent right decompressive craniectomy, which has resulted in significant neurologic impairment affecting cognition, sight, speech, movement and ambulation, the complaint states.

The child also suffered a right distal radius/ulnar fracture and other injuries.

Neal seeks recovery relating to earnings, medical care, scarring, deformity, pain, mental anguish, humiliation, embarrassment, loss of well-being, disfigurement, severe restrictions on the child’s ability to engage in normal activities and inability to pursue and enjoy the normal and ordinary pleasures of life, the suit states.

The complaint contains counts of negligence, gross negligence, recklessness and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Neal seeks damages in excess of $50,000 as well as a trial by jury.

 

The case ID number is 120801282.