Kansas City woman falls at rest area, sues janitors

While passing through Madison County, a Kansas City woman fell on a freshly mopped rest stop floor, injured nearly her entire body and soiled her clothing.

On Wednesday, Janice White filed suit against the janitorial service that maintains the Silver Lake rest stop in Highland on westbound I-70, seeking $135,938 in damages.

In the Madison County lawsuit, White claims that when she entered the rest stop on Oct. 18, 2004-- which was under control of defendant Challenge Unlimited of Alton--she slipped on wet tile that was being "actively mopped."

"There was an unknown substance on the floor at the time White fell which caused her pants and shirt to become soiled when she fell," the complaint states.

White contends that when she entered the building there were no signs displayed to alert her to the condition of the floor.

"Challenge Unlimited failed to use reasonable care under the circumstances to remove, remedy, or warn White of the dangerous condition of the tile floor."

According to White, she suffered contusions throughout her body, including to her chest and ribs, lumbar, thoracic and cervical strain and sprains and segmental/somatic dysfunction, extreme nerve shock and impairment of the nervous system, and also sustained severe and debilitating injuries to her right femur, hip pain, right leg pain, inguinal pain and lower back pain.

White also claims she was in three hospitals in two states for 50 days. She suffered, and still continues to suffer, severe pain and anguish of body and mind, according to her complaint.

She claims she continues to receive numerous medical treatments for injures, has suffered a depressive reaction, and her entire body has been made stiff, sore and lame and has been permanently injured, incapacitated and crippled and now suffers the ever present danger of osteomyelitis, arthritis and osteoporosis.

She is represented by the Holliday Law Firm in Kansas City