Medical Massage Therapist Wins $1.24 Million After Trip and Fall Fractured Both Wrists Outside Brooklyn Apartment Building

Lada Rodak was a 64-year-old medical massage therapist living at a residential building owned by 760 East 10th Realty LLC in Brooklyn. One day, while outside the building, she tripped and fell on a dangerous condition the property owner had failed to correct. She put out her hands to catch herself and fractured both wrists.

For a massage therapist, both wrists are tools of the trade. Bilateral wrist fractures meant lost work, medical treatment, and an extended recovery during which Rodak could not perform the hands-on work her career required.

Hill and Moin attorneys Eric Wittels and Melisande Hill filed suit in Kings County Supreme Court against the building's ownership entity, alleging it had allowed a dangerous condition to persist on the property and failed to maintain the exterior area in a reasonably safe state. They presented the fall, the resulting fractures, and the documented impact on her work life and daily functioning.

The jury agreed and returned a verdict of $1,240,000 in Rodak's favor. The case was ranked No. 45 among the top 50 plaintiff verdicts in New York State for 2022 and No. 37 among the top 50 in New York City for the same year, according to TopVerdict.com's annual editorial compilations.

No post-verdict reduction or appeal result was identified in publicly available records.