A New Jersey woman who suffered brain and spinal injuries after falling outside a day spa has agreed to a $975,000 settlement of her personal injury suit.

Gina Torretta was exiting the Avanti Day Resort in Manalapan in April 14, 2018, when the heel of her shoe got caught in the gap between slabs of a concrete sidewalk, causing her to fall forward, said James A. Maggs of Maggs McDermott & DiCicco in Wall Township, who represented Torretta along with Victoria J. Adornetto of the same firm.

Torretta filed suit in Essex County Superior Court against Design Center LLC and Jain & Jain LLC, the owner of the center and the party responsible for maintenance of the premises, respectively.

The $975,000 settlement, in which Design Center and Jain & Jain are jointly liable, was reached Dec. 14 in a session with Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Beacham.

A surveillance camera captured the fall, showing that Torretta, 49, had a severe, face-first impact with the ground and briefly lost consciousness, Maggs said.

Torretta suffered a traumatic brain injury, injuries to her cervical spine and occipital neuralgia, which causes pain in the upper neck, back of the head and behind the ears.

James A. Maggs of Maggs McDermott & DiCicco in Wall, New Jersey. Courtesy photo


Torretta required lengthy hospitalization and subacute rehabilitation immediately after the accident, required cognitive rehabilitation and treatment and still struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, Maggs said. She suffered herniations at the C3-4 and C4-5 levels, bulging discs at C5-6 and C6-7, and required five pain management injection procedures and two significant spinal surgeries. The first was a two-level, anterior fusion from C3 to C5, and the second was a two-level anterior cervical discectomy and instrumented fusion, extending the fused levels to include C5 through C7, according to Maggs.

Torretta, who previously worked as the manager of a nail salon, is unable to work since the accident, Maggs said.

Liability expert Wayne F. Nolte concluded that the stamped concrete sidewalk in front of the spa presented a hazardous condition from improper and inadequate maintenance of the sidewalk, according to Maggs.

No permanent, structural filler was found within the construction joints, resulting in the joints becoming filled with soft debris and material, so that when the heel of Torretta's shoe contacted the gap, her foot became caught as it sunk in the soft debris, causing her to fall forward. Nolte concluded that the sidewalk violated the local property maintenance code, industry standards and the barrier-free subcode of the Uniform Construction Code, according to Maggs.

The defendants had $1 million in insurance coverage, and were willing to settle if the plaintiff accepted a $25,000 reduction from that amount, Maggs said.

The defense maintained that Torretta was partially liable because she was walking along the sidewalk at a brisk pace and because she was wearing high-heeled shoes, Maggs said. The plaintiffs' assertion, that the defendants were liable because they failed to maintain the filler in the gap between the sections of sidewalk, was a novel one because, at first look, the sidewalk appeared safe, he said.

"However, upon close examination, you realize that it represented a tripping hazard because they did not have either a filler or some kind of cement in between the pavers to prevent this from happening. The correct thing for them to have done was to replace that filler so someone would not catch a heel like this," Maggs said.

The attorney representing defendants, Lisa R. Marshall of the Law Offices of Frank Viscomi, declined to comment on the settlement.