A fan at a Boston Bruins sport who slipped and fell within the TD Backyard concourse, struggling severe accidents, has misplaced his negligence case in federal appeals courtroom.
Alexander Raheb sued the proprietor and operator of TD Backyard, Delaware North, after his main tumble on the tile concourse flooring — touchdown on his kneecap and rupturing his left quad tendon.
He ended up bringing a negligence lawsuit in opposition to TD Backyard’s proprietor for the autumn, and a Massachusetts federal district courtroom dominated in favor of Delaware North, which additionally owns the Bruins.
Now, a federal appeals courtroom has agreed with that district courtroom ruling for TD Backyard’s proprietor.
“The entry of summary judgment for Delaware North is affirmed,” the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the First Circuit wrote this week.
Again on April 13, 2019, Raheb attended a Bruins playoff sport together with three pals, together with Fahim Manzur.
After coming into TD Backyard, Raheb and Manzur made their solution to their balcony stage seats and stopped at a concession stand on the balcony concourse stage. Raheb purchased a hotdog and a beer. Raheb’s recollection is the beer was bought in a cup that didn’t have a lid.
Beer and hotdog in hand, Raheb and Manzur walked by way of the concourse to their balcony seats. About 40 or 50 ft past the concession stand, earlier than passing by way of the doorway to his seat, Raheb slipped and fell on the white tile concourse flooring. He landed on his kneecap, rupturing his left quad tendon.
Raheb needed to endure surgical procedure and bodily remedy, incurred substantial medical payments, and missed time from work.
Each Raheb and Manzur testified that they didn’t see any liquids or different hazards on the concourse flooring earlier than the autumn. After the autumn, Manzur noticed a “fairly clear” liquid on the bottom the place Raheb slipped, however couldn’t determine its supply.
Raheb alleges that he slipped on this liquid, which Delaware North’s video footage exhibits had been spilled about 5 or 6 seconds earlier by one other fan.
That patron had been carrying one cup of beer in every hand, with a sports activities emblem “Terrible Towel” draped over the shoulder, when the towel fell on the ground. The fan handed one cup of beer to a different particular person, however stored the opposite cup in hand because the patron bent down to choose up the towel.
On the time of the incident, Delaware North had a facility service cleansing contract with UG2. Eight cleaners had been assigned to every of the 9 flooring of the world and patrolled the concourse with mops.
UG2 reminded its staff earlier than occasions to patrol the concourse to guarantee that the ground was not moist. A UG2 worker testified in deposition that “a lot of” spills at TD Backyard had been attributable to prospects, and that prospects had two or three cups of their arms “all the time.”
Incident reviews produced throughout discovery confirmed that there had been a minimum of 14 slip-and-fall incidents at TD Backyard within the three years earlier than Raheb’s fall, although not all had been linked to spilled drinks.
Raheb in his lawsuit argued that TD Backyard has hundreds of followers strolling by way of “corridors crowded with other patrons carrying open cups of beer over a bright white tile floor that makes spilt beer difficult to observe until after a slip and fall has occurred.”
However “none of these facts distinguish TD Garden from any other ‘establishment in which patrons are permitted to carry their own drinks… from a concession stand to their seats at a sporting event,’ ” the ruling reads.
Raheb additionally pointed towards proof that “customer-caused spills occurred ‘constantly’ during events hosted by Defendant.”
Nonetheless, within the ruling, the courtroom wrote, “There is no evidence that TD Garden was dimly lit or employed ‘flashing strobe’ or similar lighting or that its sports fans regularly jostled each other and caused spills. In fact, Raheb testified in his deposition that though the concourse was very busy, he was not greatly impacted in his ability to move through it.”
