Suit settled for reported $5.5M in toddler's fall from window
A lawsuit by a mother after her 3-year-old daughter fell out of a third-floor North Philadelphia window in 2012 and suffered serious head injuries has been settled for a reported $5.5 million.
A lawsuit by a mother after her 3-year-old daughter fell out of a third-floor North Philadelphia window in 2012 and suffered serious head injuries has been settled for a reported $5.5 million.
The settlement figure was not available in a public court document, and the plaintiff's attorney, Nancy J. Winkler, said Friday she could not comment on the case.
The Legal Intelligencer reported Thursday that the settlement with numerous defendants, including the building's owner and the parties involved in a renovation project, totaled more than $5.5. million.
The mother, Rahnisha Neal, of North Philadelphia, sued on behalf of her daughter, Rahniya Neal.
On Jan. 9, 2012, the girl and her mother were visiting relatives who lived in a subsidized rowhouse on the 1500 block of North Gratz Street.
The girl was watching TV on a bed along the window wall and was playing with other children when she came in contact with the window screen and fell through the window, dropping 30 feet onto concrete outside, an amended lawsuit filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court says.
The toddler suffered "catastrophic and permanent injuries to her head and body," the lawsuit says. The girl, now 7, suffered severe traumatic brain injury with multiple skull fractures, which resulted in neurological impairment, affecting her cognition, sight, speech, movement, and her ability to walk, the suit says.
Among those named as defendants in the lawsuit, originally filed in August 2012, were the businesses that owned the Gratz Street rowhouse or which were involved in a renovation project at the house.
The defendants included Arch VI-Temple N. Gratz Street LP and 1260 Housing Development Corp., both with addresses at 2042-48 Arch St.
According to the lawsuit, in 2010 and 2011, in connection with a project to renovate and restore affordable family housing, those defendants contracted with a Norwood carpentry company, a Blue Bell building company, and an Ambler architect firm to renovate the house, including its third-floor windows. Those suburban Pennsylvania companies also were named as defendants.
The suit contended that as part of the project, the defendants installed a new window and screen in a third-floor bedroom without any window guards or other devices that would have prevented children from falling through an open window or through the screen.
The room was designed "in a manner which required the positioning of a bed along the wall," where the new window and screen were located, and the defendants knew that children were living in the house or would visit, the suit says.
The defendants have denied liability in the matter.
John A. Orlando, a defense attorney in the case, did not return a call.
Jury selection in the civil trial was set to begin Friday. But, Winkler, in a letter dated April 1 to Common Pleas Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson, noted that "the parties have reached a global settlement, obviating the need for a trial."
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