ELIDA — A Kenton woman is suing the Elida schools Board of Education for negligence after the woman reportedly fell and dropped a carrier holding her infant child while she was walking down a set of bleachers at an Elida Middle School basketball game last year.
The lawsuit, filed in Allen County Common Pleas Court on Jan. 25, alleges that a set of “poorly maintained” wooden bleachers slid out from under Marci Kieffer as she was leaving a basketball game on Dec. 7 at Elida Middle School.
The lawsuit alleges Kieffer has incurred more than $32,000 in medical bills from “severe and permanent injuries” she sustained from the fall, including an alleged shoulder injury that required surgery.
Kieffer is asking the court for a jury trial and a $25,000 judgment, plus interest and attorney fees, to cover the expense of her medical bills.
“No reasonable person would expect to walk down a set of bleachers and fall due to the bleachers sliding out from underneath them,” Kieffer’s attorney Kenneth Ignozzi writes in the lawsuit, which claims the bleachers were not properly secured.
The case is assigned to Judge Jeffrey Reed.
Elida school board President Jeffrey Point declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday.
The Elida school board met in executive session on Jan. 24 to “consider the investigation of charges or complaints against a public employees, official, licensee or regulated individual,” according to the meeting agenda.
The agenda does not identify the individual or nature of the complaint, but board members may address the complaint during their next regularly scheduled board meeting on Feb. 13.
