$1.75 Million Premises Liability Settlement in Brooklyn

Raphaelson & Levine secured a $1.75 million settlement for a Brooklyn resident who suffered multiple injuries when a staircase collapsed inside her building.

A Staircase Collapse in a Brooklyn Building

Staircases are not supposed to collapse. But in this Brooklyn building, years of deferred maintenance and neglected structural warnings caught up with reality — and our client paid the price. She was using the staircase when it gave way beneath her, and the collapse sent her falling through the broken structure. She fractured her right foot, broke ribs, injured her lower back, and damaged her right hand trying to brace the fall.

The combination of injuries was debilitating. A fractured foot meant she could not walk unassisted. Broken ribs made breathing painful. Lumbar damage caused chronic back pain. And the hand injury compromised her ability to grip, lift, and perform basic tasks. Recovery was long, expensive, and far from guaranteed to restore her to full function.

Proving Landlord Negligence in Brooklyn

The property owner claimed the collapse was unforeseeable. Our Brooklyn premises liability lawyers proved otherwise. We obtained the building's Department of Buildings violation history, which revealed multiple prior citations for structural deficiencies — including warnings about the very staircase that collapsed. Maintenance logs showed that the landlord had repeatedly deferred critical repairs to save money.

Howard Raphaelson retained a structural engineer who inspected the collapsed staircase and confirmed that the failure resulted from years of wood rot, corrosion, and load-bearing degradation — all conditions that would have been caught and repaired by any landlord performing even minimal maintenance. Our premises liability attorneys used this evidence to establish that the collapse was not just foreseeable but inevitable given the owner's pattern of neglect.

Justice for an Injured Brooklyn Tenant

The $1.75 million settlement covers our client's medical treatment for her foot, rib, back, and hand injuries, along with lost wages, rehabilitation costs, and pain and suffering. It holds the Brooklyn property owner accountable for allowing a known structural hazard to injure a tenant.

"The building's own violation history told the story. The city warned this landlord about structural problems in the staircase, and he did nothing. Our client walked down those stairs trusting they would hold, and they didn't. No tenant in Brooklyn — or anywhere — should have to worry about a staircase collapsing under their feet."

— Howard Raphaelson, Founding Partner at Raphaelson & Levine

If you've been injured by a structural collapse or unsafe conditions in a Brooklyn building, our premises liability attorneys have decades of experience holding negligent property owners accountable, and are ready to review your claim. Contact us today for a free case evaluation.