Doug McInnis with Assistance of John Graceffa Obtain Massachusetts Appeals Court Victory

Doug McInnis with assistance of John Graceffa obtained a Massachusetts Appeals Court victory on behalf of an elevator maintenance company. At issue was the application of res ipsa loquitor to a claim by the plaintiff, who was injured while being extracted from a stalled elevator. Our client was hired to maintain and modernize a hotel elevator, and did so a week before the plaintiff’s accident. The defendant argued that the plaintiff failed to establish a nexus between the accident and any act or omission of the defendant and that the mechanics of the elevator, and whether it would not have stalled unless the defendants were negligent, would have been outside the common knowledge of the jury. There was no expert testimony from which a jury would have been able to draw that inference. Regardless, the plaintiff argued that she was entitled to rely on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur to prove that the elevator would not have stalled unless the defendants were negligent. The Appeals Court agreed with us, noting that the plaintiff’s argument failed where nothing in the summary judgment record supported even an inference of negligence.