DeSoto County: Horn Lake, MS woman awarded $60,000 in damages against Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto in slip and fall case

Brenda Dowland, a resident of Horn Lake, Mississippi, was visiting her husband at Baptist DeSoto on September 30, 2008, when she decided to visit the hospital’s gift shop. After turning from the lobby onto the hallway where the gift shop is located, Ms. Dowland slipped and fell on a portion of the tile floor that had recently been mopped by an employee of Baptist Desoto Hospital. The only warning sign posted was at the opposite end of the hallway, and it could not be seen from where Ms. Dowland fell.

As a result of her slip and fall, Ms. Dowland suffered personal injuries to her right arm for which she still undergoes pain management treatment today.

Baptist DeSoto refused to accept responsibility for the slip and fall accident and Ms. Dowland’s personal injury and negligence claims, instead alleging that their posted warning was adequate and that since Ms. Dowland was only a visitor and not a patient of the hospital, Baptist DeSoto owed her no duty to keep its premises reasonably safe. A jury of 6 DeSoto County, MS, jurors unanimously disagreed.

The trial began on Monday, December 6, 2010 in the Desoto County, MS, County Court. After two and a half days of trial, the jury began deliberations at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 8. Four hours later, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of Ms. Dowland in the total amount of $60,000.

Ms. Dowland’s attorney, Brandon Flechas, of Stroud, Flechas & Dalton, a personal injury and criminal defense law firm in Southaven, MS, stated, “The jury just listened to Brenda’s story, which she had been waiting over two years to tell them. They applied the law to the facts, and ultimately, they made the right call, making Baptist do what they had refused to do for over two years: take responsibility for its own actions. Brenda, her family and I are all very appreciative of the jury’s decision.”

Also of counsel for Ms. Dowland was Philip Stroud. The attorneys for Baptist DeSoto were John Dunbar and Kate Embry, of the Dunbar-Davis firm in Oxford.