CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Ramzy Ladah delivering his closing argument
Las Vegas, NV - A Nevada state court jury returned a roughly $3.4 million verdict Monday in a long-running premises liability lawsuit filed by a man claiming he slipped and injured himself on a casino’s wet marble floor, and the full trial was recorded gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
The Clark County jury found Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino partially responsible for injuries plaintiff Jesse Lozano suffered in 2018, when he claims a slip on a spilled drink that went unnoticed by casino staff left him with serious back injuries requiring millions of dollars in medical treatment. However the casino argued insufficient evidence existed to prove what Lozano actually slipped on and suggested the liquid on the ground could have come from a beer in Lozano's hand or a flask in his back pocket.
While the jury found the casino liable, the panel also assigned Lozano 50 percent liability for the incident, reducing his collectible damages to roughly $1.7 million under Nevada’s comparative negligence statute.
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Plaintiff attorney Ramzy Ladah of Ladah Injury & Car Accident Lawyers, asked the jury to award roughly $7.8 million in damages. He argued Lozano, then 60, was walking back through the main thoroughfare of the casino after seeing a show with his family. He claimed Lozano suddenly slipped in a puddle of liquid on the marble floor, supposedly demonstrated by his wet clothes after being helped up.
Ladah argued no casino employee could testify how long the liquid was on the ground because before the incident they allegedly didn’t maintain a regular maintenance rotation schedule. He also argued the casino had full control of the facility so the blame couldn’t be shifted to a third party or other entity.
In addition to a significant amount of testimony dealing with the casino’s internal custodial and maintenance operations, the trial also featured extensive expert witness testimony over Lozano’s alleged injuries. While Lozano didn’t suffer any acute symptoms in days immediately after the fall he was subsequently diagnosed with a cervical injury that Ladah told jurors required numerous injections and ablations, nerve stimulator implants and surgery, with past and future medical expenses likely exceeding $2 million.
Representing the defense, attorney Brandon Lew of Brandon Smerber Law Firm insisted Lozano never presented any evidence conclusively proving the casino was responsible for his fall. He argued nobody testified they saw liquid on the ground before the fall, and that the liquid on Lozano’s pants when he got up could have easily come from his own beer or pocket flask.
CVN screenshot of defense attorney Brandon Lew delivering his closing argument
Lew noted Lozano did not file an incident report with any casino staff, and that he was already under the care of a chiropractor before the fall for degenerative back issues, which Lew insisted was the actual underlying cause of Lozano’s continuing medical issues.
The plaintiff team declined to comment on the verdict, and CVN did not get a response from defense counsel when reached for comment.
The 10-day trial took place before Judge Danielle Pieper.
The case is captioned Jesse Lozano v. Paris Hotel And Casino, case number A-20-823179-C in Nevada’s Eighth Judicial District in Clark County.
Email David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com