Pizza Hut plaintiff wants $50k in default judgement

Edwardsville attorney Amanda Verett wants a judge to enter a default judgment in excess of $50,000 against a man she opened the door for at Pizza Hut because he failed to answer her lawsuit within 30 days.

Verett filed a civil suit in March alleging she was injured while holding the door open for customers at the Edwardsville restaurant.

She claims she was walking out the door of Pizza Hut on Feb. 12, when she held open the door to allow herself and co-defendant Clarence Jackson to exit.

Last week Verett's attorney, Tom Maag of Edwardsville, filed the motion for default judgment alleging Jackson was served on March 8, and failed to answer the complaint in 30 days as allowed by Illinois law. Judge Nicholas Byron presides over the case.

Verett alleges Jackson grabbed the door she was holding open in such a fashion that it caused the door to suddenly and sharply move which injured her.

She claims Jackson violated his duty to use ordinary care for the safety of others when he operated the Pizza Hut door which caused her to sustain an acromion process impingement in her right shoulder.

Verett claims that due to the injury she suffered at Pizza Hut, she was unable to avoid falling on a later date and tore tendons and suffered injuries to her left hand and wrist, including a partial tear of the pronator quadratus muscle at the dorsum.

She claims her injuries caused her to suffer a disfigurement, severe pain and discomfort and medical expenses.

Verett claims Pizza Hut was negligent by maintaining a door for ingress and egress which was not reasonably safe and was likely to injure people when being held open and grabbed by another.

On April 5, Pizza Hut's attorney Andrew Miller filed an answer claiming Verett was more than 50 percent responsible for her alleged injuries which bars any recovery on her part.

Verett filed a response to Pizza Hut by simply stating that she denies Pizza Hut's affirmative defenses.

Byron has not set a hearing on the default judgment.