A Grand Court judge has ordered Butterfield Bank to pay $96,841 to an employee who fell down the stairs at the bank’s parking garage in George Town more than 10 years ago.
Justice Jalil Asif, KC, in a judgment issued on Friday, agreed to award the requested costs of medical care ($41,093), loss of earnings ($26,373) and general damages for pain and suffering ($29,375) to Magdalyn Burlington, who was injured after slipping down wet stairs on 2 Sept. 2014.
The court had heard that Burlington, who worked at the bank’s Albert Panton Street branch, had been walking down the stairs from the ground floor level to the basement level at the bank’s garage when she slipped and fell. She had claimed that it had been raining all day and the steps, which were exposed to the elements, were wet.
She had been carrying her lunch in a paper bag under her arm and a drink in one hand while holding the stairs’ handrail with her other hand, she stated in her evidence. She said she had descended about two steps when she lost her footing and fell down the remainder of the stairs, striking her tailbone on about seven of the steps.
She told the court she suffered a cut to her left ankle, abrasions to her knuckles and a large bruise to her thigh. After returning to her office, her manager drove her to see her general practitioner, who sent her to hospital for an X-ray. No fracture was detected in the X-ray.
There followed a series of treatments, including physiotherapy, steroid injections and the wearing of an ankle brace. Burlington underwent two surgeries, in 2016 and 2017, to try to repair her injured ankle.
In August 2018, she began legal proceedings against the bank for negligence and failing to take sufficient case to ensure she would be reasonably safe when using the stairs. She had told the judge that the treads of the stairs were too short, the stairway was not adequately lit, and the handrail had been incorrectly positioned.
She claimed she had developed “complex regional pain syndrome” as a result of the accident, which severely affected her ability to work and enjoy normal activities of daily life.
Having initially denied the claim, Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Ltd. admitted liability but disputed causation and the extent of the consequences of the fall, alleging that Burlington was “guilty of contributory negligence”, the judge noted.
The claim came before Asif on 31 May last year as a summons filed by Butterfield in February that year to strike out the action for want of prosecution. In his ruling on that element of the case, Asif concluded there had been “inordinate and inexcusable delay” in advancing Burlington’s claim.
At the time, he ruled out any aspect of the claim connected with Burlington’s complex regional pain syndrome, focusing instead on the ankle injury.
The judge’s ruling noted that Burlington claimed her injuries meant she could “no longer wear trousers, maxi dresses, and covered shoes or heels. She has to use a cane or other walking apparatus to assist her with mobility. She complains that the injury to her ankle has affected her daily and leisure activities, as well as affecting her physically.”
Her injuries, she said, also meant she could no longer dance or participate in fun runs and walks, nor play the keyboard in church banks, and that she had become “withdrawn and reclusive”.
The question of costs in relation to lawyers’ fees has yet to be settled.
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