Posted on 07/22/2005 9:04:22 AM PDT by Rakkasan1
A WOMAN WHO was branded with part of Con Edison's logo after falling onto a burning hot Manhattan manhole cover is suing the utility. A lawsuit filed yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court accuses Con Ed of allowing the manhole cover at E. 13th St. and Second Ave., to become excessively hot through a buildup of steam under it.
Elizabeth Wallenberg, 27, suffered "excruciating pain, disability and grotesque cosmetic disfigurement," according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.
The fall left Wallenberg with a "C" and "O" and part of the manhole grid burned onto her back, just above the buttocks, and with burns on her arm.
"It literally looked like a brand that had been applied by someone," said her attorney, Ronald Berman.
He said the insignia has since faded, and outline of the manhole grid has blurred.
But the incident will leave her with discolored skin on her back and arm for the rest of her life, he added. "There is nothing the doctors can do," Berman said.
Wallenberg, who was skateboarding when she fell, is now a factory worker in Portland, Ore., Berman said.
A Con Ed spokesman declined comment.Helen Peterson
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
I am a Republi_Cat!
Here's a whole page full of them.
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/manholes/manhole.html
So, you're suggesting that she just lay there after crashing?
Just laying there on 140 degree cover is going to get you a nice first degree burn that hurts for a while, unless you're stupid enough to lay there while being slowly cooked. It's not going to leave a lasting mark in the matter of a second or two, or you'd hear plenty of stories about kids being branded while falling down in the streets while playing.
This also didn't happen during the daytime, it happened after midnight when you don't have a reasonable expectation that a manhole cover is going to be extremely hot.
If there was steam hot enough to burn comming out around the edges of the cover, that in itself would be a hazard that the utility would be required to prevent.
The utility has a duty to make sure that people aren't comming in contact with things that hot in a public place.
If she got burned by steam after going down a manhole, that wouldn't be the utility's responsibility.
Having the manhole cover itself be that hot means the utility was negligent.
A lot of manhole covers say "Neenah Foundry Company- Neenah, WI" which could be the source of an "N" and an "O."
No, Silly. Then we'd blame the negligent parents.
I guess only a lot of newer covers are from Neenah--one of the larger construction castings foundries in the world.
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