$700,000 Slip and Fall Settlement in Manhattan

The cleaning company waxed the floor without telling the store manager. No signs, no barriers, no warning. An employee walked onto that floor to fill a customer order and fractured her ankle on impact.

Employee Slips on Freshly Waxed Floor at Manhattan Store

Our client was an employee at the Bed Bath & Beyond store at 410 East 61st Street in Manhattan. The store was operating a pickup service, which required employees to walk throughout the store retrieving items for customers. On the day of the incident, our client went to the second floor to gather items for a customer pickup order. The cleaning company — JK Cleaning Company — had waxed the second-floor surface without notifying store management that the work was being performed.

There were no wet floor signs. No barriers blocking access to the freshly waxed area. No verbal warning to any employee. Our client stepped onto the waxed surface and immediately lost her footing. She fell hard, fracturing her left ankle in the impact. The fracture was severe enough to require surgical repair with hardware — plates and screws to stabilize the broken bone — followed by months of non-weight-bearing recovery and physical therapy.

Cleaning Company and Property Owner Liability

When a third-party contractor creates a dangerous condition on a property, both the contractor and the property owner can bear liability. The cleaning company had a duty to notify building management before waxing floors in occupied areas and to post warning signage during and after the work. The property owner had a duty to coordinate with contractors to prevent exactly this kind of hazard — employees walking onto freshly treated surfaces without knowledge or warning.

Our attorneys obtained the cleaning company's contract with the building, which specified that all floor treatments in occupied areas required advance notice to the building manager and placement of warning signs during and after application. Neither step was taken. We also obtained the cleaning company's work log, which confirmed the floor was waxed earlier that morning with no notification entry recorded. The failure was not a misunderstanding — it was a skipped step in a documented protocol.

"The cleaning company's own contract required them to notify management before waxing occupied floors. Their own work log shows they didn't do it. An employee walked onto a freshly waxed surface with no signs, no barriers, and no idea the floor was slippery — because nobody told her. That's not an accident. That's a protocol failure." — Howard Raphaelson, Founding Partner

$700,000 Mediation Recovery for a Manhattan Slip and Fall

This $700,000 mediation result covers left ankle surgery with hardware, months of non-weight-bearing recovery, physical therapy, lost wages during an extended absence from work, and the permanent ankle limitations our client now manages. It holds the cleaning company and property owner accountable for a floor treatment performed without the required notice and safety signage.

If you slipped and fell on a wet or freshly waxed floor at a store or workplace, our premises liability attorneys have experience proving third-party contractor negligence and are ready to review your case.