GALVESTON - Following a fall at a customer's Texas City residence two years ago, an airconditioner repairman has filed a lawsuit.
Houston resident Froilan Ortiz Jr. filed suit April 4 in Galveston County District Court against Elton L. Hudson.
According to the suit, Hudson hired Ortiz to fix his air conditioner. The plaintiff went to Hudson's house on April 4, 2011, and as he made his way up to the attic, the staircase gave way and caused him to fall, the original petition says.
Ortiz claims the incident left him with an interior capsule sprain of the ankle, a fractured talus, an osteochondritis dissecans of the post facet talus and talus at the ankle joint.
Hudson is faulted for:
- Failing to warn of a known danger or hazardous condition or to make it reasonably safe;
- Breaching his duty to inspect and make safe a dangerous condition;
- Failing to reasonably and adequately maintain the stairs; and
- Breaching his duty of ordinary care to make the stairs reasonably safe.
"The defendant knew or should have known that the condition of the attic stairs posed an unreasonable risk of harm to the plaintiff," the suit says.
Consequently, the complainant seeks $200,000 in damages.
He is represented by attorney Cynthia Frederick of The Frederick Law Firm PLLC in Houston.
The case has been assigned to Galveston County 405th District Court Judge Michelle Slaughter.
Case No. 13-CV-508