MORGANTOWN – An Ohio woman seeks damages after she fell in a Morgantown hotel parking lot and broke her ankle earlier this year.
Jamie Carter of Brilliant, Ohio, filed her complaint May 22 in Monongalia Circuit Court against Mountaineer Inns Inc., which operates the Best Western Hotel on Boyers Avenue in Morgantown.
According to her complaint, Carter was checking into the hotel Jan. 9 when she left the lobby to return to her vehicle. When she went to unlock her vehicle, she suddenly fell to the ground.
Toriseva
When she tried to stand up, she says she felt “excruciating pain” in her left ankle.
“Now standing, plaintiff noticed a drop off in the concrete, leading onto the asphalt where she was parked,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff realized her fall occurred when she stepped off the unmarked curb.”
Carter says she tried to go back to the lobby or help, but the pain made that too difficult. Instead, she drover herself to the emergency room at Ruby Memorial Hospital. X-rays showed a left lateral malleolus fracture.
After being discharged, Carter returned to the hotel, completed an incident report and checked out.
She says she was unable to work from Jan. 10 through Jan. 13. She also says she had several follow-up appointments with an orthopedist through March 4. She was assigned light duty at her job as a registered nurse through March 4 as well.
“As a result of plaintiff not being able to perform her duties as a registered nurse, she was assigned to other areas of the hospital to keep her working,” the complaint states. “Further complicating her ability to work, due to plaintiff’s injury, she was unable to utilize the employer provide housing because of the distance plaintiff would have to walk between the parking lot, apartment and hospital.”
Carter says she continues to suffer from pain and swelling in her ankle and foot, especially after shifts at work.
“Plaintiff continues to have difficulty on a day to day basis and must take extra precautions when doing simple things such as cleaning the house, walking the dog, grocery shopping etc.,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff is only able to wear certain kinds of shoes because of the limited range of motion she has in her ankle since her injury.”
In her complaint, Carter accuses the hotel of negligence and of breach of non-delegable duty to invitee entrants. She seeks compensatory damages for pain and suffering, missed work, medical bills and other costs. She says she also has suffered pain and mental anguish, has incurred and will incur medical expenses for her ongoing treatment, has suffered a loss of enjoyment of life, lost wages, permanent scarring, and suffers permanent physical injuries.
She is being represented by Teresa Toriseva and Jake Polverini of Toriseva Law in Wheeling.
Monongalia Circuit Court case number 20-C-144