Barn Door Collapse at Midtown Hilton Garden Inn Leads to $32 Million Verdict, Later Reduced to $12 Million

On September 3, 2015, Kimberly Curtis, a former Olympic trainer from Ohio, was a guest at the Hilton Garden Inn at 237 West 54th Street in Midtown Manhattan, a property owned and operated by the Moinian Group. A heavy barn-style sliding door broke free from its track and fell directly onto her, causing serious injuries to her knee and spine.

Curtis filed suit in 2018 in the Southern District of New York, naming both the Moinian Group and Hilton Worldwide Holdings as defendants. The case stretched nearly six years before reaching trial, in part because of what attorneys uncovered during discovery: the barn doors at the hotel had been falling repeatedly off their tracks and were the single most-reported problem in the property's maintenance records. Moinian and Hilton management were aware of the hazard long before Curtis was hurt.

The litigation took a sharper turn when Judge Edgardo Ramos found that the defendants had willfully failed to preserve key evidence, including maintenance records, internal emails, phone records related to door-safety complaints, and the door itself. That spoliation finding opened the door to punitive damages at trial.

Attorney Jonathan Sneed of Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz and Stogner tried the case for Curtis. In May 2024, the jury returned a verdict of $2 million in compensatory damages and $30 million in punitive damages, a total of $32 million, reflecting the jury's conclusion that both defendants had acted recklessly and deliberately concealed evidence of a known danger.

In November 2024, Judge Ramos granted a remittitur, reducing the punitive damages award from $30 million to $10 million on the ground that the original figure was excessive. The final judgment stands at $12 million, combining the full $2 million compensatory award with the reduced $10 million punitive amount.