At first it seemed unlikely, but New Haven attorney Jason Prueher won a six-figure settlement for a drunken client who fell 12 feet from a stairwell.

Prueher faced a series of obstacles. No one had witnessed the fall. And his client had consumed at least five alcoholic drinks before tumbling down the stairs.

The attorney needed to prove that something other than alcohol had led to the brain surgery the plaintiff needed as a result of the fall.

Prueher, the litigation practice manager for Gould Injury Law, said his client's demeanor during deposition, and the serious aspect of his injuries—a brain bleed—helped his case.

"The strategy was to focus on the injuries," the attorney said. "They were really horrific."

The case settled for $280,000 on March 25.

"I think the defense felt very good on liability," Prueher said. "But … they were really fearful that if we had a sympathetic jury, and they heard from my client who is very credible, that they might feel sorry for him and award something much more than the $280,000 we settled for."

Representing the building's management was Joseph Ciollo of Hartford-based Morrison Mahoney. Ciollo didn't respond to a request for comment Monday.

Plaintiff Anthony Michaud fell one story to the first-floor stairwell of his fiancée Kelly Alejandro's New Haven apartment complex in June 2018. He was taking out the garbage when a spindle running up and down became dislodged, falling between his legs, causing him to fall down the wooden steps to the floor.

In court papers, the defense argued Michaud's fall was due to his own carelessness in that he "failed to exercise reasonable care" and "failed to make proper and reasonable use of his faculties."

Michaud filed a March 2019 lawsuit in New Haven Superior Court, alleging defendant 1495 ET Grasso NavCapMan LLC, the operator of the building, failed to properly maintain the interior stairs and spindles.

The lawsuit alleges the building owner knew of "the uneven, defective and dangerous condition of the interior stairs and stair spindles, but took no steps to correct the problem."

Prueher surmises the defense might have settled for six figures after seeing Michaud, 47, in deposition.

"He came off in deposition as a sympathetic client, and they know the jury would have seen that," he said. "My perception is that the defense saw my client was a nice guy who was down on his luck."

Prueher acknowledges Michaud drank before the fall and had a drinking problem, but said, "It all came down to the TBI [traumatic brain injury]. The defense, I believe, was very fearful on how a jury might look upon someone with a TBI."

Another issue Prueher had to contend with was his client's loss of memory after the fall.

"My client, because of the TBI, didn't remember drinking or that he was a bad drinker," Prueher said. "The defense was going to say he was being less than truthful about his history of drinking. But, we said, it was all due to the TBI, for which he had documented memory issues."

Prueher said the settlement was "reasonable considering the obstacles, like the drinking, that were in front of us."

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