Posted on 08/14/2021 8:29:14 AM PDT by lightman
A Teaneck woman who was attacked and suffered a broken bone in her leg in Staples last summer after asking a fellow customer to put on a mask has filed a lawsuit against the business.
Margot Kagan, 55, says in court papers a lack of supervision and security left her “boxed in” and vulnerable to the woman who allegedly attacked her near the fax machines at the Hackensack store.
There was “no reasonable way to alight from a foreseeable event,” states the suit, filed last week in Superior Court of Bergen County.
“(The) foreseeable event was a fellow patron who berated and ultimately attacked (Kagan),” the suit states.
The incident occurred July 29 as the mother of two faxed paperwork from the store’s machines, Kagan told NJ Advance Media after the attack.
In an interview from her hospital bed last year, Kagan said she’d recently had a liver transplant and was worried about contracting the coronavirus.
“I said, ‘you’re endangering everyone by not wearing your mask’ and I put my head down and went back to faxing at the machine,” Kagan said days after the event.
Security video from a store camera shows the suspect walk around a plastic divider and confront Kagan.
“Next thing I know, she’s two feet away from me, screaming at me,” Kagan said. “I really didn’t understand what she was saying. I lifted my cane to keep her away from me.”
Video appears to show the suspect grabbing the frail woman and throwing her to the floor. “My knee broke while I was falling. I later learned it was my tibia,” Kagan said.
Police arrested Terri Thomas, 25, of Hackensack, and charged her with aggravated assault. The criminal case is pending in Superior Court, public records show. But Kagan has sued only the store, not Thomas.
The lawsuit alleges Staples was negligent in not providing security at the Hackensack store, which court papers describe as “a high crime area.” Staples did not immediately respond Friday morning to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
RINO “Conservative Republican” says “Wat?”
Can I get a translation of your comment, preferably to English.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.