$3.5 Million

Premises Liability Settlement

The Case: A 14-year-old boy and his family had enjoyed a day on the beach together in coastal South Carolina when they returned to their room inside a Marriott hotel and the boy took a shower. As he exited the shower, its sliding glass shower door exploded and shattered into countless sharp fragments, lacerating our him in numerous places. The glass severed the radial sensory nerve in his left arm, which required surgical repair and resulted in substantial scarring. He incurred approximately $70,000 in medical expenses.

The Outcome: Yarborough Applegate filed a hotel lawsuit against the hotel’s owner and operator, alleging that they breached their duty to inspect it for unreasonably dangerous conditions, protect our client from encountering the condition, or reasonably warn him of the danger. The Defendants contested liability and damages, claiming they had no knowledge of a hazard.

However, as we dug into the case, we found some 32 incidents of glass shower doors exploding and injuring guests at four of the Defendants’ Marriott hotels—including ten incidents at this very location prior to our client’s incident. And yet, despite all of these incidents, the Defendants had never attempted to determine the root cause.

The hotel injury settlement of $3.5 million included $1 million from primary liability insurer Sompo International and $2.5 million from excess liability insurer Allied World.