On January 17, 2017, Carly Schollmeier tripped and fell while walking down a staircase at the Woodside Long island Railroad station in Queens.
In her ensuing lawsuit, Ms. Schollmeier, then 25 years old, claimed that the step on which she tripped was broken or corroded. The jury found that LIRR was negligent with respect to its failure to maintain the staircase.
The matter then proceeded to the issue of damages upon which the same jury awarded plaintiff pain and suffering damages in the sum of $200,000 (all past – six years).
The defendants appealed arguing that the liability verdict should be reversed and, alternatively, that the damage verdict was excessive. In Schollmeier v. Metropolitan Transit Authority (2d Dept. 2025), the appellate court upheld the liability verdict and reduced the pain and suffering award to $100,000.
As a result of her fall, plaintiff sustained a non-surgical avulsion fracture of her ring finger.
Plaintiff was given a splint at the hospital the next day which she wore for about a month upon which she underwent a course of occupational therapy. Her treating doctor last examined her about five months after the accident noting that the fracture had by then fully healed.