Kansas jury awards $1.4 million in slip-and-fall damages

A Liberty man injured in a 2020 New Year’s Eve slip-and-fall at a University of Kansas Medical Center parking garage in suburban Kansas City has been awarded $1.4 million in damages by a Wyandotte County, Kansas jury. 

Douglas Dawson was injured while returning to his vehicle at the KUMC P2 parking garage on Dec. 31, 2000, slipping on ice that he said had accumulated via leaks, the result of negligence on the defendant’s part. 

The jury concurred, delivering a $2 million verdict at the conclusion of a mid-November trial but holding Dawson 30 percent responsible for the accident on the second level of the three-level garage.  

The suit alleged that “since at least 2016 and continuing after plaintiff’s fall, water has continuously leaked or otherwise dripped down from between the spaces in the concrete of Level 2A’s celling, where it pooled at the base of the Level 2A column and spread along the floor.” 

Attorneys for the medical center did not respond to a request for comment. At trial, the defense argued under the Kansas Tort Claims Act that the weather played a role in the parking lot’s condition, said lead plaintiff’s attorney Brennan Delaney with Langdon & Emison’s Independence office. 

$2 million jury verdict for plaintiff 

Premises liability 

Allocation of fault: Dawson 30%; University of Kansas 70% 

Breakdown and distribution of total value:  noneconomic loss: $200,000; economic loss: $257,219; future noneconomic loss: $1,027,547; future economic loss reduced to present value: $515,234 

Venue: Wyandotte County (Kan.) Circuit Court 

Case Number/Date: 2021CV504/Nov. 13, 2024 

Judge: William Mahoney 

Plaintiff’s Experts: Dr. Aldo Berti, Spine & Joint Centers of Missouri, Kansas City (neurology); Dr. Michael Rippee, KU Health System, Kansas City, Kansas (neurology); Tom Rewerts, Kansas City (structural engineering); Brooke Liggett, Springfield (accounting) 

Defendant’s Expert: William Blessing, Kansas City (neuropsychology) 

 Injuries alleged: head, brain, neck 

Injuries detail: mild traumatic brain injury with ongoing post-concussion syndrome 

Caption: Douglas Dawson v. University of Kansas 

Plaintiff’s attorneys: Brennan Delaney (lead), Summer Davidson; Langdon & Emison, Independence; Kevin Jones, Liberty 

Defendant’s attorney: Eric Turner (lead), and Brian Boos,Foulston Siekfin, Overland Park, Kansas