Lawsuit filed over icy slip-and-fall in garage
STAMFORD — A city man has filed suit against the operators of the Gateway Garage as well as the owners of the Washington Boulevard parking structure for negligence and recklessness that allowed for the creation of ice to form in early March 2019 that caused the man to slip and fall while retrieving his car, severely injuring his elbow.
Stamford attorney Adam Blank said the alleged victim, 68-year-old Adam Borkowsky, has undergone multiple rounds of very expensive medical procedures to repair a very painful elbow injury.
“We are disappointed that the city hasn’t stepped in to ensure Building and Land Technology has made its garage safe for commuters,” said Blank, who works for the law office of Wofsey, Rosen, Kweskin & Kuriansky.
The 21 page suit says the 1,700-space garage, which offers access to the Stamford Metro-North railroad station, is built underneath a plaza and one or more high-rise towers.
The suit alleges that the the use of expansion joints to construct the garage should not allow water to flow from the top level of the garage to the lower levels.
The suit also says that the owners of the building were required to waterproof the top level of the garage.
But when the garage was opened to the public in 2014, the suit alleges that the top level of the garage was not adequately waterproofed, allowing the water to flow into the garage.
Later in the evening of March 5, 2019 Borkowsky was on the train coming from New York City, where he was having dinner with this son. After getting off at the Stamford station he made his way into the Gateway Garage at about 10:20 p..m.
As he was pushing the lock button on his car’s remote and listening for his horn to beep while scanning cars in the garage, the suit says he slipped on an icy area near an expansion joint and fell forward landing on his left elbow joint, fracturing the radial head and ulnar coronoid process, causing fracture lines and chips.
In a reply to the complaint, attorney Frank Usseglio, who is representing Pro Park Inc., the operator of the garage, said Borkowsky failed to to watch were he was stepping, failed to make use of his senses and faculties and was not watchful of his surroundings, because he had lost his car or did not remember where he had parked.
Usseglio also denied the claim that the defective condition at the Gateway Garage posed a serious dangers to those using the garage such as Borkowsky. He denied the allegation that the garage owners put profits ahead of people.
He also argued that the the Gateway Garage owners were not aware of the dangerous conditions for a signifgant time before the accident.