PITTSBURGH – An Allegheny County woman taking her child trick-or-treating on Halloween two years recently settled her litigation with a pair of Pittsburgh residents, at whose property an axe allegedly fell from a candy table and lacerated her right leg.
Larhon D. Buchanan first filed suit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on May 21, 2020 versus Mary Herbert and Rachel Kudrick, both of Pittsburgh.
Buchanan was accompanying her child for trick-or-treating on Oct. 31, 2019, when the pair came to a residence on the 900 block of Highview Street, where a dangerous condition was present at the residence in the form of an axe on the edge of the table where Halloween candy was being given out, the lawsuit said.
When an individual distributing candy nudged the table, the axe was caused to fall from the table and strike Buchanan’s right lower leg.
As a result, the plaintiff suffered a laceration, erythema, permanent scarring and muscle spasms to her right leg, a right leg injury, right leg weakness, a right ankle sprain and other physical and emotional injuries, the suit said.
The defendants’ attorneys filed an answer and new matter to the complaint on July 10, 2020. In the answer, the defendants take issue with the plaintiff’s version of events, saying the object in question (the axe) was located on the back of a table in the defendants’ driveway, not in front of the house as the lawsuit alleged.
Additionally, the defendants provided a long list of rationales as to why the complaint should be barred, among them being that the suit failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, that no dangerous conditions existed on the property where the incident occurred, that the suit was barred by the applicable statute of limitations and was barred by a failure to reduce or mitigate damages.
On July 13, 2020, counsel for the plaintiff replied to the new matter in labeling it as containing conclusions of law to which no response was required – and to the extent that the new matter contained facts, they were generally denied.
UPDATE
On May 11, counsel for the plaintiff filed a praecipe to mark the case as settled and discontinued. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Prior to settlement and for a count of negligence, the plaintiff was seeking damages in excess of the jurisdictional limits of compulsory arbitration, plus court costs, interest, such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and equitable and a trial by jury.
The plaintiff was represented by Michael E. Megrey of Woomer & Talarico, in Pittsburgh.
The defendants were represented by Robert D. Shope and Christopher M. Jacobs of Houston Harbaugh, also in Pittsburgh.
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas case GD-20-005908
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com