Michael Y. worked as a cabinet maker. He went to a work associate’s cabinet shop to take him to the train station. The shop was in a collective space leased by a man who rented space out to various craftsmen. This man built a staining room on the second floor of the leased premises. The only way up to this staining room was a stairway that the lessee-who held himself out as a master stair builder-built without any hand rails in violation of the city building code. At the top of the stairway he also made the landing narrower than the stairwell, resulting in a one foot gap with no railing to protect a person waling up the steps.

When Michael got to the shop, he was asked to help carry a cabinet up the steps to the staining room by an employee of his friend. He agreed to help, and carried the front end of the cabinet up the stairs backwards in order to hold onto the cabinet. As he got to the top of the steps, he could not see the one foot difference in width between the stairway and the landing, and his left foot stepped into the empty space on the landing, and because there was no railing, he fell 11 feet and landed on his head and shoulder. As a result of the fall, he received a skull fracture and minor brain bleed, along with various orthopedic injuries. Michael was unable to work for nearly a year, and when he did finally get back to work, he was not the man he was before. While he made a remarkable recovery given the seriousness of his injuries, he nevertheless had permanent cognitive problems, memory issues, social cueing issues with his family and many other complications that came from the brain injury. His family was devastated by his changes, but endeavored to adapt to who he as a husband and father had become. He remained a cheerful individual, but those around him saw plenty of changes in the old Michael, and saw a very different Michael after the fall.

Michael retained BILS, and suit was filed against the building owner, the lessee, and the friends cabinet company (his friend invited him to do this since he was helping carry the cabinet up the stairs). After plenty of attempts by the defense to blame things other than the fall for his permanent deficits, the case went to mediation, and ultimately settled for a total amount of $1.94 million. Had the lessee been insured, the case would have settled for much more.