Vol. 56 No. 5

Trial Magazine

Verdicts & Settlements: Premises Liability

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Failure to cover window well

May 2020

Alice McKee, 62, worked as a pharmaceutical delivery person. She went to the Wesley Manor nursing home campus to make a midnight medication delivery but was unable to enter the building. After she called the nurses’ station and did not receive an answer, she walked over the building’s side lawn, attempting to reach a window within sight of the nurses’ station. She climbed over some landscaping and stepped into a window well, falling six feet into a cement pit. She suffered a fractured femur, which has left her with a limp and unable to stand or sit for any length of time.

McKee, whose workers’ comp medical payments totaled $185,000, has not returned to her job, at which she had been earning $18,000 annually.

McKee sued Wesley Manor, Inc., alleging it failed to have an effective communication system for deliveries and failed to place a grate over or a railing around the window well. The plaintiff also asserted that the landscaping concealed the hazard posed by the open window well.

The defense argued that McKee should have waited for the nurses or called them again. Additionally, the defense argued that it could not have anticipated that anyone would approach the window well, which did not require a protective covering under applicable building codes.

The jury awarded approximately $752,600, finding the plaintiff 20% liable.

Citation: McKee v. Wesley Manor, Inc., No. 12C01-1709-CT-759 (Ind. Cir. Ct. Clinton Cty. Jan. 23, 2020).

Plaintiff counsel: AAJ members Kent Winingham and D. Bruce Kehoe, both of Indianapolis.