A Wood River tenant reached a settlement with her landlord in a suit alleging she was injured when part of the ceiling of her rental property fell on her head.
Plaintiff Barbara Feldman filed her lawsuit through attorney Rodney Caffey of Caffey Law Firm on Nov. 1, 2018, against Scott Smith.
In her complaint, Feldman alleged that on July 8, 2017, she was renting a property owned by Smith located at 158 S. Central Avenue in Wood River. She claimed that while she was in the property, the living room ceiling fell on her head.
Feldman claimed she sustained injuries to her head, neck and shoulders.
The plaintiff alleged Smith consciously failed to maintain the rental property in a reasonably safe condition and disregard her safety by failing to repair the leaking roof and faulty ceiling tiles.
Feldman sought damages of more than $50,000, plus costs.
She filed a motion for default judgment on March 3, requesting an order defaulting Smith and a hearing to determine damages.
On June 5, Madison County Circuit Judge David Dugan granted her motion, finding that Smith was served with summons on three separate occasions in December 2019. Because the defendant failed to respond, Dugan found him in default on the issue of liability.
He had scheduled a hearing on damages for July 30.
Smith filed a motion to vacate default judgment on July 1 through attorneys Corey Kraushaar and Denise Baker-Seal of Brown & James PC.
“Here, balancing the severity of the penalty and the attendant hardship on plaintiff if she were required to proceed to a trial on the merits, favors the vacating of the default judgment entered against defendant,” the motion stated.
“In addition, plaintiff would not suffer any hardship or prejudice if she were required to proceed to a trial on the merits,” it continued. “Clearly, the severity of the penalty to defendant outweighs any attendant hardship to plaintiff, if any hardship were even to exist.”
Smith argued that he had “at least one strong meritorious defense” against the plaintiff’s claims.
“Namely, after the incident in question, plaintiff told defendant that she was pressing on the ceiling to see how wet it was before it allegedly fell on her,” the motion stated.
Smith argued that a jury could reasonably conclude that Feldman contributed to her injuries.
“Regardless, defendant’s liability, if any, would be significantly less than the 100% attributed to him as a result of the default judgment,” the motion stated.
On July 30, Dugan entered an order announcing that the case had settled. He ordered the parties to submit settlement documents within 60 days and set a case management conference for Oct. 1 at 9 a.m.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 18-L-1481