Columbia area woman, 85, wins $2.5 million in lawsuit over hazardous walkway

At 82, Gloria Minnick was an unusually active senior citizen — she parachuted, gardened, bowled, pet-sat and cleaned houses.

But when she tripped and fell on an outdoor path at her Columbia area condominium, she broke her right hip. The operation to repair it and subsequent infections ended her active life.

That’s not the end of the story. On Aug. 28, after a four-day trial, a Richland County jury awarded Minnick a $2.5 million verdict, holding the condominium association, called the Forest Lake Place Horizontal Property Regime, liable for her life-changing injuries.

The verdict was a bit of consolation.

“I’ve just had a very active life. I’ve always been busy, taken care of myself and always worked. Now, I sit around a lot of times. I hate this, not being able to do things I need to do,” Minnick said in an interview with The State newspaper. Now 85, she is still doing physical therapy for the aftermath of the injuries.

The fall happened Sept. 22, 2022, while she was walking her dog, a Shih Tzu named Chanel, on a downward sloping unpaved hill in the common area of her condominium, Forest Lake Place, “frequently used by Ms. Minnick and her neighbors,” according to a lawsuit she filed in the case.

After an operation to repair the broken hip, she continued to develop infections at the injury site and had to undergo repeated bouts of rehabilitation.

Months and years before Minnick fell, the condominium’s governing group had recognized the exposed root dangers from erosion on the popular walkway and even agreed to install a paved walking path, the lawsuit said. And several months before her fall on the walkway, another condominium resident had fallen “in roughly the same spot,” her lawsuit said.

Consequently, the fall was the direct results of the governing group’s “failures to maintain the common elements of the property and to correct an unreasonably hazardous condition,” the lawsuit alleged.

In its answer to Minnick’s lawsuit, the condominium’s governing group denied any “grossly negligent conduct” on its part and placed the blame for the fall on Minnick, saying if the jury determined Minnick’s negligence in causing the fall was greater than that of the homeowner’s association, she should be barred from any recovery for damages.

In reaching its decision, the jury’s verdict was $5 million. Jurors said the homeowner’s group was 51 percent responsible for the fall and Minnick, only 49 percent. Consequently, the jury award to Minnick was $2,550,000.

Such a split verdict, under a legal doctrine known as comparative fault that apportions responsibility for an accident, meant jurors believed that Minnick bore some responsibility for the fall, but not as much as the homeowner’s group.

“Ultimately, the lesson is one of accountability,” said Minnick’s attorney, Jessica Fickling of Columbia. “We want for ourselves to be accountable, but that doesn’t preclude others from being accountable as well.”

In April of 2022, Minnick was able to jump out of an airplane strapped to a parachutist, free fall and run along the ground when the parachutist swooped in for a landing, Fickling said.

“By September, when this fall happens, it was obviously very life-changing to the point that she’s never been able to return to walking on her own,” Fickling said.

One of Fickling’s arguments to the jury was that the majority of people who lived in the condominium community were over the age of 65 and more likely to fall than younger people. “When you’ve got adverse populations, you do need to take care,” Fickling said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falls are the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries to older adults.

Lawyers for the homeowners’ group, Everett Kendall II and Cameron Stephenson, have indicated in post-trial filings, that they plan to appeal. They have already asked Judge Chris Taylor to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial.

Kendall and Stephenson could not be reached for comment.

At Minnick’s four-day trial, the jury was out approximately three hours. Judge Taylor, a former federal and state prosecutor who was elected to a judgeship earlier this year, presided.

Minnick, who testified during the trial, and told jurors how active she was before the fall, said in a recent interview, “I’m still in physical therapy. I’m not able to walk without my walker. But I’m getting stronger, and I’m working hard to do that.”

“I try to watch every step I take,” Minnick said. “One of these days, I’m going to be able to get up off the couch and walk into the kitchen without that walker.”