- November 17, 2024
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Dennis McDonald, a former candidate for County Commission, is suing the city of Palm Coast for injuries he said he sustained to his left hand, shoulder and leg after tripping over a cracked section of sidewalk on Clubhouse Drive and then falling down an embankment in 2013.
“Three fingers do not fully function at this point, and that’s due to the fact I fell on the sidewalk on the overpass on the bridge by the clubhouse,” he said. “Coming down on the sidewalk by that bridge was a 10-foot drop from the elevation of the sidewalk where I fell to the bulkhead down below.”
The suit was filed March 23, but the fall happened two years before, at about 7:30 p.m. March 24, 2013, according to the complaint. McDonald is seeking in excess of $15,000 in damages.
Before filing the lawsuit, McDonald had already filed a claims notice against the city, writing that the section of sidewalk he’d tripped on “was obviously cracked by heavy equipment used to maintain the grassy area adjacent to the sidewalk,” but the claim was denied.
In a 2013 letter to McDonald, Florida League of Cities Claims Representative Katherine Serrano wrote, “Our investigation shoes no negligence/liability on the part of the city of Palm Coast. Therefore we respectfully deny your claim for damages.”
McDonald has sued the city, unsuccessfully, in the past. In an Aug. 25 hearing, he and attorney Joshua Knight agreed to pay approximately $19,000 in legal fees Palm Coast incurred fighting a lawsuit McDonald had filed about trees in the Palm Harbor Shopping Center.
McDonald is represented in the injury case by New Smyrna Beach attorney Ward Berg.
