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Trials & Litigation

Man who fell out of reclining chair during deposition loses negligence case against law firm

A New Jersey law firm was not liable for damages claimed by a man who fell out of a chair while attending his wife’s deposition, a state appeals court has ruled, affirming a summary judgment dismissing the case.

At issue was whether Wolff Helies Duggan Spaeth & Lucas had a duty of care requiring the law firm to adjust the tension of a reclining chair before plaintiff Thomas Hickey sat in it. Hickey eventually leaned back in the chair, fell on the floor and was injured, according to the suit.

A plaintiff’s expert “found no defect in the design or manufacture of the chair but asserted instead an obligation on the chair owner to reset the tilting mechanism before every use,” explained the New Jersey Superior Court in its opinion (PDF) last week.

However, even assuming that such a common-law duty to adjust the chair’s “degree of reclinability” existed, the fact that Hickey had been sitting in the chair for 90 minutes before the accident negated it, the court said: This was “sufficient time for him to learn the chair was designed to tilt and to appreciate its tension setting.”

Likewise, “It would be neither fair to land-occupiers nor beneficial to the public to impose in such circumstances a duty to warn of a non-defective chair’s commonplace tendencies,” the court concluded.

Hat tip: New Jersey Advance.

See also:

ABAJournal.com: “Ex-client in $2.2M law firm chair-collapse case wins reinstatement of ‘substantial’ verdict”