Attorney Demands $50K For Injury Caused by Pizza Hut Door

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Amanda Verett, an attorney in Edwardsville, Illinois, has sued Pizza Hut and another customer for injuries she says she sustained from a door.  Verett alleges that on February 12, as she was exiting the Hut, she held the door open for herself and another customer (now the co-defendant), Clarence Jackson.  According to the suit, Jackson grabbed the door in such a fashion that it moved suddenly, causing her to "sustain an acromion process impingement in her right shoulder."

I thought The Acromion Process was one of those Robert Ludlum books, but it does turn out to be part of your shoulder.  (It’s the part that articulates with the clavicle and curves forward to overhang the glenoid cavity, if that helps any.)

With her acromion process impinged, Verett alleges, she was "unable to avoid falling on a later date" and the fall injured parts of her left arm, including "the pronator quadratus muscle at the dorsum."  The report did not say how an injury to Verett’s right shoulder caused her to fall in the first place, but maybe we’ll learn that later.

Verett says that Jackson operated the door negligently and that Pizza Hut was negligent for "maintaining a door for ingress and egress [which I think is what most doors are for, actually] which was not reasonably safe and was likely to injure people when being held open and grabbed by another."  I’m quoting the article, not the complaint, but I’d be willing to bet the article is quoting the complaint, unless reporters also go around saying things like "a door for ingress and egress."

Verett is seeking a default judgment against Jackson, who did not answer in time.  Pizza Hut’s answer alleges that Verett was more than 50% responsible for her injuries, which under Illinois law bars any recovery on her part.

Link: Madison County Record