A Ceiling Tile Fell on a Guest in the Crowne Plaza's Grand Ballroom. A Knox County Jury Awarded $600,000.
After trial: The jury returned $600,000 in October 2022 ($500,000 economic, $100,000 noneconomic). Plaintiff's counsel moved for a new trial arguing the award was inadequate, and how that motion was resolved is not public.
Won by Greer Injury Lawyers.
A woman attending an event in the grand ballroom of the Crowne Plaza hotel in Knoxville was struck on the head by a falling ceiling tile and suffered a mild traumatic brain injury. A Knox County jury returned $600,000, of which $500,000 was economic loss.
What happened
A woman was attending an event in the grand ballroom of the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Knoxville when a ceiling tile came loose above her and struck her on the head. She was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury.
The case is a straightforward premises-liability claim, and the kind that turns on maintenance rather than on any dramatic act: a hotel invites paying guests into a function room, and the fixtures overhead are the hotel's responsibility to inspect and keep in place. A ceiling that sheds a tile onto a guest's head is evidence that something in that chain was not being done.
The jury tried the case before Judge Jerome Melson in the Circuit Court for Knox County and returned a verdict of $600,000. The breakdown is unusual and worth reading closely: $500,000 of it was economic loss, meaning medical care and lost earning capacity, and only $100,000 was noneconomic, meaning the pain, the disorientation and the cognitive effects of the brain injury itself.
The plaintiff was represented by Sadler Bailey, Thomas Greer and Josh Cannon, then practising as Bailey and Greer in Memphis and now Greer Injury Lawyers. The hotel was defended by James Embrey, Jr. and Tanner Yancey of Hall Booth Smith in Nashville.
The plaintiff's side did not treat the verdict as a win outright. Because the noneconomic component was so much smaller than the economic one, counsel moved for a new trial on the ground that the award was inadequate.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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