$2 Million Verdict for Senior Woman Who Broke Her Arm on a $30 Sidewalk Defect Outside Lexington County's Own Building

In October 2020, Donna Roland drove to the Lexington County Auxiliary Administration Building at 605 West Main Street to turn in an absentee ballot. As she stepped down from a curb outside the building, her foot caught in a gap between the sidewalk and the curb, roughly three inches wide and half an inch deep. She fell and broke her arm in two places. Surgery followed ten days later. Medical bills reached $92,000.

The building had been in county ownership since 2001. No resident had ever filed a complaint about the defect in those nineteen years. At trial, however, the county's own risk manager testified that the gap had been flagged as a 'top priority' for repair. Contractors estimated the fix at roughly thirty dollars, two bags of concrete. The repair was never made.

Roland, through attorney Robert Goings of Goings Law Firm in Columbia, offered to settle the case for $150,000 before trial. Lexington County rejected the offer. The county's defense rested primarily on the argument that it had no notice of the defect. The risk manager's testimony undercut that position.

The three-day jury trial concluded on July 12, 2023, before Judge Walton McLeod. The jury deliberated less than twenty-five minutes before returning a unanimous verdict of $2 million in Roland's favor. Goings, who had practiced for more than fifteen years, told reporters it was the largest trip-and-fall verdict he had seen in a county historically reluctant to award large sums in civil cases.

No appeal or remittitur reducing the award has been reported in available coverage.