Fulton jury awards woman $1.14 million for sidewalk fall

By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Fulton County jury on Friday awarded $1.14 million in damages to a Norcross woman who suffered permanent foot damage after falling on an Atlanta sidewalk.

On May 31, 2007, Miriam Nichole Hancock, 35, the manager of a social services agency, got her heel caught in loose concrete while crossing the intersection at Pryor Street and Upper Alabama Street near Underground Atlanta, her lawyer, Don Edwards, said. She fell and severely injured her ankle and required a number of surgeries after the accident, he said.

The verdict was against the city of Atlanta for failing to correct the sidewalk problem when it knew or should have known the problem existed before Hancock's fall, Edwards said.

The jury awarded Hancock $2,499 in damages for medical expenses, $125,166 for lost earnings and $1.01 million for pain and suffering, her co-counsel, Mary Carole Cooney, said.