Minnesota Lawyer
The case of Justice v. Marvel LLC began when a child attended a birthday party and fell from an inflatable attraction. “There was commercial grade carpeting on the floor below the amusement instead of padding,” Michenfelder explains. Without adequate protection, the child sustained a permanent brain injury.
What seemed like a clear case of negligence was complicated by a waiver the mother had signed. “It was a typical waiver with very broad language,” Michenfelder says, and it convinced several judges that the family had no grounds for a lawsuit. “We lost at the trial level, and we lost in the court of appeals,” Michenfelder says.
But he and Subbaraman ultimately prevailed at the Minnesota Supreme Court, which decided they could take their case against the company forward. “They said, ‘No, that waiver isn’t good enough,’” Michenfelder summarizes.
“The facts of the case were compelling,” he adds. “You had a young kid doing exactly what young kids are invited to do. He got a serious injury when something easily could have been done to prevent it.” Pointing out that installing padded surfaces where children will be rough housing is a “minimal expense, commonsense measure,” Michenfelder says. “This is a case that cried out for justice.”
Thanks to Michenfelder and Subbaraman’s work, companies in Minnesota are now more likely to be held responsible for their negligence.
“I think this will make it just a little bit tougher for companies to think that they’ll get off the hook if they have a sufficient waiver,” Michenfelder says. “Now they’ve also got to think about taking some basic, fundamental precautions. And that’s a significant win for society.
Read more about Minnesota Lawyer’s superb class of Attorneys of the Year for 2022 here.
