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Jury awards floral shop owner $250,000 Woman fell while making delivery to day care center BY DAVID SINGLETON A Lackawanna County jury awarded nearly $250,000 to a floral shop owner injured while making a delivery to a Taylor day care center nearly eight years ago. Josephine Royce, 45, of 546 N. Hyde Park Ave., fell outside Belotti Day Care, 106 Rinaldi Drive, on April 9, 1998, after slipping on a rain-slickened temporary walkway. She and her husband, Larry, filed their personal injury suit against the day care center and its owners, Leo and Clare Belotti, in July 1999. According to the suit, Mrs. Royce, owner of Forget Me Not Floral and Gifts, was delivering flowers to the center when she slipped on a slab of particle board put down as a temporary sidewalk. She fractured her left ankle in three places, requiring two surgeries, and missed approximately 19 weeks of work. Mrs. Royce’s attorney, Michael J. McDonald, told jurors in his closing argument the temporary walkway was an accident waiting to happen. He said his client continues to pay for the center’s negligence through her inability to perform the tasks of daily living. Jurors set total damages at $416,600 — $340,000 for pain and suffering, $72,000 for past and future medical bills, and $4,600 for lost wages. However, the overall award was reduced to $249,960 because the jury found Mrs. Royce was 40 percent responsible for the accident. The jury returned its verdict late Thursday after hearing three days of testimony and argument in Judge Carmen Minora’s courtroom.
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