$11.4 Million Verdict After a Winter Garden Shopper Fractured Her Leg and Ankle at an Abrupt Curb Seam in a Target Parking Lot
After trial: We found no report of a post-trial motion, remittitur or appeal, but the verdict is under a year old and one may be pending or unreported. Published accounts do not say whether the $11,391,183.28 figure is before or after any reduction for the plaintiff's share of fault, and there is no public report of payment.
Won by Morgan & Morgan.
A 44-year-old Winter Garden woman fractured her right tibia, fibula and lateral malleolus and her left ankle after catching her foot on an abrupt asphalt-to-gutter seam in the Super Target parking lot at Winter Garden Village on Dec. 23, 2019. On Oct. 17, 2025, an Orange County jury awarded $11,391,183.28 and found Target and property owner Site Centers 90 percent at fault. She had declined a pre-trial offer and tried the case.
What happened
On December 23, 2019, a 44-year-old Winter Garden woman parked at the Super Target in the Winter Garden Village shopping center on Daniels Road. It was the holiday rush and there were puddles in the lot, so she picked her way between parked cars while carrying her young daughter. Near a landscaping island she stepped onto the seam where the asphalt met the concrete gutter of the curb.
The seam was an unmarked, abrupt change in elevation. Her left ankle twisted and fractured, and she fell to the right. Trying not to drop her child, she landed with her right leg bent awkwardly beneath her. The fall fractured her right tibia, fibula and lateral malleolus, in addition to the left ankle. She needed multiple surgeries, and she now has metal rods and screws permanently in her right leg.
She sued Target Corporation and Site Centers Corp, the owner of the Winter Garden Village property. Her claim was that the uneven surface and sudden drop in height violated several building codes and that neither company had fixed or marked it. The defendants disputed the case, and it did not settle. The woman declined the defense's highest pre-trial offer and took the case to a jury in Orange County Circuit Court.
On October 17, 2025, the jury returned a verdict of $11,391,183.28. It found Target and Site Centers 90 percent at fault. The published accounts do not say whether the verdict figure was reduced for the remaining share of fault, and they do not break the award into its parts.
Morgan & Morgan attorneys Matt Morgan, Fan Li and Perry Nava represented her. In comments quoted by CBS News, Matt Morgan and Fan Li said their client suffered a devastating and lifelong injury and lives with pain and limitations from the hardware in her leg, and that the verdict 'spoke the full truth as to the level of human harms and losses sustained.' Target declined to comment when contacted by reporters.
The case went from a fall in a parking lot to a trial verdict in just under six years. We found no report of a post-trial motion or appeal as of this writing, though the verdict is recent enough that one could still be pending.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.CBS News Miami: verdict, 90% fault, defendants Target and Site Centers, injuries, and quotes from Morgan & Morgan attorneys Matt Morgan and Fan Li
- 2.The Independent via AOL (Isabel Keane): facts of the fall, injuries, $11,391,183.28 verdict, 90% fault, counsel Matt Morgan, Fan Li and Perry Nava, Target declined comment
- 3.West Orange Times & Observer, Oct. 21, 2025: Super Target location on Daniels Road, Dec. 23, 2019 fall, Oct. 17, 2025 verdict date, building-code finding
- 4.WFTV, Oct. 29, 2025: injuries, verdict amount, 90% fault, counsel named
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