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Thursday, October 27, 2011

Ind. Courts - Chesterton: "Restraining order issued in Saturday deck collapse"

This Oct. 26th report in the Chesterton Tribune, from Kevin Nevers, has some interesting parallels to the State Fair stage collapse, including (although not pointed out in the story) the same attorney for the petitioner as in several of the State Fair suits. The story begins:

One of the party guests injured in the deck collapse on Saturday at the rear of the building at 135 S. Calumet Road has obtained a temporary restraining order forbidding the building’s owner or other parties from removing any part of the deck structure from the scene.

That restraining order was requested by Caitlin A. Scott as petitioner, names the building’s owner, Lois Maureen Kennoy, as respondent, and was granted by Porter Superior Court Judge Bill Alexa late on Monday.

Scott’s attorney, Kenneth J. Allen, told the Chesterton Tribune today that Scott is currently hospitalized with multiple fractures of the pelvis.

According to the restraining order, the “alteration, destruction, disposal, or loss of the deck and/or any of its associated materials” will “cause immediate and irreparable injury to the petitioner’s ability to inspect and investigate the circumstances and potential causes of the collapse and will impede or prevent the ultimate prosecution of any potential action for her personal injuries.”

“It’s important in a case like this to preserve the evidence,” Allen said. “In Indiana there is no obligation by the defendant to preserve the evidence, under fairly recent State Supreme Court case law. It’s incumbent on us to make sure the evidence is preserved and protected in such a way as for the jury to reach a just result.”

“The law typically presumes there is negligence when something like this happens,” Allen added. “We want to confirm that. Our preliminary assessment is that there is.”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 27, 2011 09:34 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts | Stage Collapse