Mall sued over escalator injury

Man says his foot was caught at NLR shopping center

A 45-year-old man is suing McCain Mall, claiming he was injured while using a malfunctioning escalator at the North Little Rock shopping center.

Earnest Joseph Tyler of Little Rock filed his premises-liability complaint on Wednesday, a day before the third anniversary of the March 2021 incident. According to the five-page filing, Tyler stated the “comb-type teeth” of the escalator caught his foot due to a defect in the device’s design, operation or maintenance.

The suit, brought by Little Rock lawyers Willard Proctor and Jacobi Malone, does not describe Tyler’s injury but claims the mall, formally the McCain Mall Co. Limited Partnership, knew that the escalator had similarly trapped other people’s shoes and clothes. The attorneys plan to add the management company as defendants once the name of the company has been ascertained.

The suit asks Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chip Welch to convene a jury trial to determine Tyler’s damages, which he asserts are for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering and disfigurement.

In December 2018, a Pulaski County jury awarded $3 million to a New York woman whose right big toe was torn off on a Park Plaza mall escalator during a 2013 Christmas season shopping trip in Little Rock.

The escalator manufacturer Kone Inc. and the mall defendants, ERMC II LP, Park Plaza Mall, CBL & Associates Management Inc. and CMBS LLC, had admitted responsibility for Aisha Siddiqui’s injuries, leaving the jury to decide damages, with the defendants asserting she was only due $500,000.