$1.2 Million Settlement for Broken Toilet

August, 2007

The Trump Taj Mahal, one of Donald Trump’s three Atlantic City casino resorts, reached a $1.2 million settlement with an elderly woman injured after her hotel room toilet broke away from the wall while she was sitting on it.

The settlement was in regard to Taj Mahal’s liability for the injuries Jean Ciocci, 74, of Philadelphia, sustained from two separate falls: the fall from her toilet in her hotel room’s handicap-accessible bathroom on Oct. 8, 2004, and a fall she took 1.5 years later that her attorney argued came about because of the significant physical disability in her left arm caused by the earlier bathroom fall.

Ciocci’s attorney, Daniel Mann of Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner & Weinstock, said he believes a jury would have found a proximate cause connection between the two falls. He noted that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has continued to uphold that negligent defendants are liable for all the harm that flows from an initial injury. Ciocci initially demanded $2 million to settle Ciocci v. Trump Taj Mahal Associates, filed in March 2006.

“In terms of connecting up the second fall, we don’t think there would have been much doubt the jury would have been able to do that given the limitation that existed in her left arm due to the first fall,” Mann said.

The settlement was reached Aug. 22 in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. Trump Taj Mahal Associates stipulated liability in failing to properly mount the toilet in Ciocci’s hotel room, but the resort contended “vehemently” in its May 9 defendants’ settlement conference memorandum that it was not liable for the second accident.

Jerome Marks, the attorney representing Taj Mahal in the settlement, confirmed the settlement but said he couldn’t comment on the case because of his client’s desire for confidentiality.

“Unfortunately, my clients don’t let me comment to the newspapers,” Marks said. “They only let me talk in court.”

During the bathroom fall, Ciocci’s body hit the handicap grab bar and she landed on her left hand, knee and shoulder, according to the plaintiffs’ settlement conference memorandum from May 8. Ciocci’s arm injury resulted in pain, numbness, tingling in her left hand, moderate to severe left carpal tunnel syndrome and mild axonal neuropathy.

Treatment included physical therapy, cortisone injections and an open carpal tunnel release. Ciocci continued to experience pain, discomfort and “significant weakness” in her left arm and hand.