A Villager who was attending a concert at a local church claims she was permanently injured after she allegedly tripped and fell on an uneven walkway near the parking lot.
Attorneys representing Joan P. Arsenault filed the complaint against North Lake Presbyterian Church, Inc., in the Fifth Judicial Circuit Court of Lake County on August 11.
Arsenault, who is 85 and lives in the Village of Santiago, claims she attended a 10-year anniversary spring concert by The Villages Pops Chorus at the church on April 8, 2024. North Lake Presbyterian Church is located at 975 Rolling Acres Road in Lady Lake.
As Arsenault was leaving the venue at around 4:30 p.m., she allegedly tripped over a one-inch vertical depression in the walkway that was bordering handicap parking spaces. Her attorneys claim the walkway created an “optical illusion of continuity” that concealed the hazard, making the surface appear flat.
“[Arsenault] tripped and fell with force over an abrupt, dangerous, hazardous, inconspicuous, non-building-code-compliant, nondelineated, not readily apparent, optically blending, unanticipated, unattended, uncommon, uncorrected, uneven, unexpected, unguarded, unleveled, unmarked, unpainted, and unwarned elevation change, specifically a section of the angled/inclined walkway vertically depressed approx. one (1) inch,” reads a portion of the complaint…