Defense lawyers petition to remove KFC injury case to federal court

A case involving a Philadelphia-area fast food manager who claims she broke her ankle

after slipping on a puddle of water at her place of employment may have to proceed in federal, not state court, after defense attorneys filed a motion to transfer the litigation.

Nicholas J. Renzi, of Adams Renzi Law in Philadelphia, filed a personal injury complaint at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on April 2 on behalf of his client, city resident Benet Moultrie-Long and her husband, Curtis Long.

The suit alleges that Benet Moultrie-Long sustained an ankle fracture that required surgery after she slipped on a puddle of water at the KFC restaurant that she managed on May 27, 2011.

On that same day, employees with Temple, Texas-based McLane Foodservice Inc. and McLane Company had delivered frozen items to the fast food restaurant, which is located in Conshohocken, Montgomery County.

In her lawsuit, the plaintiff claims she sustained the ankle fracture, contusions, abrasions, lacerations and nerve damage, as well as trauma, mental upset, anguish and humiliation.

This week, attorney Jon Michael Dumont, of the Philadelphia firm Rawle & Henderson, filed a petition with the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia seeking to move the litigation to that venue.

The defense lawyers contend that in reading the plaintiff’s lawsuit, it appears damages would exceed the $50,000 jurisdictional limit at the Court of Common Pleas.

The petition to transfer also says that the matter should be handled in federal court because there is diversity in citizenship between the parties.

 

The state case ID number is 130400322.

The federal case number is 2:13-cv-02013-RB.