Adult plaintiff sues over rusty spike injury suffered as child in '06

A woman has filed suit against the owners of a home where she was allegedly impaled by a spike as a child.

Tamara Long alleges she was visiting defendant Laeiad T. Hurless at her home at 1013 Rutledge Drive in Belleville on April 5, 2006, when she and her friend, Joanna Hurless, began to climb a stack of railroad ties on the home's patio. At the time, Long was 11.

"At the aforesaid time and place, as plaintiff climbed up and down on the stack of railroad ties, a railroad tie shifted and rotated beneath her, thereby exposing a previously concealed rusty railroad spike, which was driven into one of the railroad ties," states the suit filed Dec. 19, 2014, in St. Clair County Circuit Court. "As the railroad tie shifted out from under her the plaintiff fell, landed on the rusty spike and was impaled, with the rusty spike extending from her thigh up toward her pelvis to an undetermined distance."

Because of the incident, Long suffered severe and permanent injuries, was hindered from attending to usual duties and lost the value of her time, the complaint says. She also alleges she experienced great pain and anguish.

According to the complaint, Hurless negligently failed to properly maintain the patio, failed to provide slip guards, failed to warn of a dangerous condition, failed to reasonably inspect her property, allowed the premises to remain in a dangerous condition and allowed the railroad ties to remain loose for an extended period of time.

Long seeks a judgment of more than $100,000, plus costs and other relief the court deems just. Attorney Stephen J. Maassen, of Hoagland, Fitzgerald and Pranaitis in Alton, will represent Long.

St. Clair County Circuit Court case number: 14-L-812.