Woman's head caves in after she's hit by chair from $14.5m penthouse
A young woman is suing after she was struck in the head by a chair that fell from a 12th floor penthouse apartment while she was walking with her boyfriend.
On January 25, Annabel Sen was on her way to lunch on a rainy and windy day when she was hit by a heavy wooden lounge chair in New York City.
The unsecured chair, which had been knocked from a terrace, caused severe traumatic brain injury and required her to undergo a number of surgeries.
According to a complaint filed by Morelli Law Firm and seen by Yahoo News Australia, the 24-year-old had applied to the prestigious Harvard Medical School when the chair fell from the $14.5 million penthouse.
The complaint claims the defendants – one of which was GR Reality Holdings, a company that controlled the penthouse and owned by Michael Rubin, co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers NBA franchise – were negligent in failing to secure the chair on the terrace, particularly on a windy day.
Ms Sen is also suing those who were leasing the apartment, the building owners and the management company.
“As a result of their negligence, Ms Sen’s life has been changed forever,” the complaint said.
It added the defendants in the case should have known, based on the weather conditions the day of the accident, that there was a risk of the terrace furniture blowing off the balcony onto the street below.
The complaint, dated September 24, said the defendants also had a duty to secure terrace furniture to prevent against the foreseeable hazard of it falling off the balcony.
“Annabel Sen was severely injured and damaged, rendered sick, sore, lame and disabled, sustained severe nervous shock and mental anguish, great physical pain and emotional suffering, some of which injuries are permanent in nature and duration,” the complaint said.
“Annabel Sen has been unable to attend to her usual vocation and activities and she has been caused to expend and will in the future expend sums of money for medical aid and attention.”
A spokesperson for Mr Rubin told NBC New York the 76ers co-owner had not lived in the building for more than a year and had been renting it out.
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