Boca Raton Regional Hospital Sued Over Sandbag Incident

BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2024 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — Boca Raton Regional Hospital, under perpetual construction, is facing a lawsuit after an incident with a sandbag. Philip Laban says he was critically injured — at the hospital — when he tripped over a sandbag left in a walkway on the hospital’s main entrance walkway.

According to the suit just filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court and obtained by BocaNewsNow.com, Laban was walking on a “pedestrian walkway at the hospital and had no expectation that a sandbag from the Moss and Associates construction crew would be in a place where pedestrians are told to walk. But that’s allegedly what happened. Here’s a key section from the suit:

“On or about April 6, 2023, a building on the Subject Property premises was under construction and the construction site, including the fencing surrounding it, was controlled and managed by Defendants BOCA RATON REGIONAL HOSPITAL, INC. and MOSS AND ASSOCIATES, LLC either jointly or in the alternative. At all times material, a sandbag weighing down the construction fencing was negligently left unsecured such that it extended into the pedestrian walkway leading to a hospital entrance. On or about April 6, 2023, as PHILIP LABAN was walking on the sidewalk on the Subject Property, he tripped on the protruding sandbag, an unreasonably dangerous condition, fell and sustained serious and permanent physical injuries.”

“On or about April 6, 2023, a building on the Subject Property premises was under construction and the construction site, including the fencing surrounding it, was controlled and managed by Defendants BOCA RATON REGIONAL HOSPITAL, INC. and MOSS AND ASSOCIATES, LLC either jointly or in the alternative. At all times material, a sandbag weighing down the construction fencing was negligently left unsecured such that it extended into the pedestrian walkway leading to a hospital entrance. On or about April 6, 2023, as PHILIP LABAN was walking on the sidewalk on the Subject Property, he tripped on the protruding sandbag, an unreasonably dangerous condition, fell and sustained serious and permanent physical injuries.”

The suit alleges Boca Raton Regional Hospital and Moss and Associates were negligent in the following manner:

Creating a dangerous condition by allowing the sandbags surrounding the construction site on the Subject Property premises to extend into the pedestrian walking space of the immediately adjacent sidewalk; Negligently maintaining the construction site perimeter on the Subject Property premises; Failing to properly secure the sandbags surrounding the construction site on the Subject Property premises; Failing to ensure that its premises were free of tripping hazards; Creating a tripping hazard on the Subject Property; Failing to timely identify or discover hazardous conditions on the Subject Property; Failing to remedy a hazardous condition about which Defendant BOCA RATON REGIONAL HOSPITAL, INC. had or should have had knowledge; Failing to properly and adequately warn PHILIP LABAN of a dangerous and/or hazardous condition on the premises that Defendant BOCA RATON REGIONAL HOSPITAL, INC. knew or should have known to exist; Failing to properly train and instruct employees on how to maintain the Subject Property in a reasonably safe condition; Failing to properly train and instruct employees on how to identify and remedy hazardous conditions on the Subject Property; Failing to comply with required and/or accepted industry practices, standards, and/or codes; Failing to identify and remedy dangerous conditions on the Subject Property so as to make them safe for use by invitees and/or guests; and Failing to remedy a dangerous condition on its property.”

Philip Laban, according to the suit, sustained critical injuries that have led to permanent disability. He is seeking in excess of $50,000 which is the statutory minimum for filing in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. It was unclear if he was transported to Boca Regional Hospital, or treated at Boca Regional Hospital, the hospital he is suing. Laban is represented by Robert Boyer and Matthew Mazzarella of Boyers Law Group in Coral Gables.