Las Vegas Jury Returns $13.14 Million Against Lowe's in Garden Center Fall

In July 2013, Kelly Hendrickson, a 38-year-old mother of three, was shopping for palm trees in the garden center of a Lowe's on South Fort Apache Road in Las Vegas. She slipped on a slimy, wet substance that had drained from the bottom of several planters. Her head struck the concrete floor.

The fall fractured her skull and caused a hemorrhage at the front of her brain. She was left with chronic neck pain, headaches, balance problems, and heightened anxiety and depression. The injury also took away her senses of taste and smell, and those losses are permanent.

Hendrickson sued Lowe's Home Centers in Nevada's Eighth Judicial District Court (Case No. A-13-687418-C), with trial before Judge Ronald Israel. She was represented by Sean Claggett, Sam Harding, and Matthew Granda of the Claggett & Sykes Law Firm, along with Al Lasso of Lasso Injury Law. Over an 11-day trial, her lawyers argued that water pooling around the planters was a known hazard and that the store failed to warn customers or keep the walkway dry. Much of the evidence turned on whether employees inspected the garden center on any regular schedule and whether warning signs or floor mats were ever placed near the leaking planters.

Lowe's, defended by attorneys from Lewis Brisbois and Thorndal Armstrong, disputed how the fall happened and how much it accounted for her injuries. The company also faced a possible punitive damages claim built on the argument that it knew about the recurring water problem.

On April 15, 2016, after about six hours of deliberation, the jury returned a gross award of roughly $16.43 million. The figure included $1.9 million in past medical costs, $30,000 in lost income, and $14.5 million for past and future pain and suffering. Jurors declined to add punitive damages, finding no implied malice. During the case, one of Hendrickson's attorneys framed the stakes for the panel: "This jury says, 'Well if you hurt one of our community citizens, you will pay.'"

The same verdict assigned 80 percent of the fault to Lowe's and 20 percent to Hendrickson. Under Nevada's comparative negligence rules, that split reduced her recovery to about $13.14 million.