Hamilton County Jury Awards $3 Million to Woman Who Fractured Her Kneecap on a Downed Wet-Floor Sign at JACK Cincinnati Casino

In September 2016, Lynda Sadowski was walking through the buffet area of JACK Cincinnati Casino when she tripped over a wet-floor warning sign lying flat on the floor. Another customer had knocked the sign down earlier, and a casino employee had passed it without picking it up just eleven seconds before Sadowski fell. The multi-colored casino floor made the collapsed sign difficult to distinguish from the surrounding surface.

Sadowski fractured her kneecap in the fall. Surgeons inserted metal hardware to stabilize the break, and she was confined to a wheelchair for roughly a month during recovery. Arthritis developed at the fracture site, leaving her with lasting mobility problems and the prospect of a second surgery.

Sadowski retained attorneys Charles M. Rittgers and Matt Nakajima of Rittgers Rittgers and Nakajima to pursue the case. Before trial, the casino's highest settlement offer was $25,000. The casino's defense centered on the argument that the downed sign was open and obvious and that Sadowski had simply not been paying attention to her surroundings.

At trial, surveillance footage told a different story. The video showed a casino employee walking around the sign without retrieving it eleven seconds before the fall, and at least two other patrons stumbled into it within ninety seconds of Sadowski's injury. Internal casino documents acknowledged the employee's failure but the casino took no corrective action against her. Rittgers and Nakajima also showed the jury that the casino had no written policies in place for floor inspections or hazard removal.

In late June 2019, an eight-member Hamilton County jury rejected the casino's open-and-obvious defense and found the casino 100% at fault. The jury awarded $3 million, an amount described at the time as one of the largest personal-injury verdicts in Hamilton County history for a comparable injury. No post-verdict reduction has been reported. Case number: A-1800226, Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas.