Irvine L. Reaves

Attorneys Jason Konvicka and Irvine Reaves secured a $2.185 million settlement for their 61-year-old client who was injured in a Richmond-area hotel. Our client was crushed when a 900-pound pair of partition panels in the hotel’s conference room fell on her. She and a colleague were holding a training seminar that was scheduled to take place at the hotel starting the following morning. The conference room could be divided into three smaller rooms through the use of sliding partition panels that were suspended from an overhead track in the ceiling. Two weeks prior to the incident, one pair of the partition panels had become detached from the overhead track. A hotel employee folded the disconnected pair of panels in between two functioning sets of panels, which were located in the wall “pocket” where they are stored when not in use. On the date of the incident, our client checked into the hotel and she and her colleague entered the conference room to see how it was configured. While in the conference room, she attempted to use the partition panels to divide the room. While doing so, the detached pair of panels fell on her. Our client’s injuries included a hip fracture, lumbar spine fracture, and fractures of three ribs. She required two surgeries including surgery on her pelvis and left shoulder replacement surgery. Liability was hotly contested. Our client alleged that the hotel knew of a dangerous condition and failed to warn her of that condition. The defendant hotel alleged that she was contributorily negligent for entering the conference room without permission, and for attempting to move the partition walls which were safely folded into their storage location. The lawsuit was initially filed in state court, but subsequently removed to federal court. The case settled for $2,185,000 after two court-ordered settlement conferences.