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Court dismisses case against American Memorial Park
The U.S District Court for the NMI has dismissed the case filed by a woman against the Pacific-West Region of the National Park Service, which manages the American Memorial Park, for an injury she sustained after tripping at the park.
Pacific-West Region of the National Park Service has reached a settlement with Alyssa Jade Nunez who sued the park for negligence.
The park, represented by assistant U.S. Attorney Mikel W. Schwab, told the court that they have settled the entire lawsuit and that the parties want the court to dismiss the case with prejudice. This means the court makes a final decision on a case and it can no longer be filed again.
After reviewing the settlement agreement, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona dismissed Nunez’s complaint.
According to the suit, Nunez said she suffered injuries when she tripped over one of the wires in the grassy area of the park in Garapan where she and her family had just attended the Taste of Marianas in May 2018. Nunez said that NPS PWR Division employees should have known that those wires presented a tripping hazard to park visitors, especially when it was dark because the grassy area was poorly lit in the evening. There were no signs to warn people of the tripping hazard created by the wires, or ward off the entire surrounding area to prevent people from walking across where the wires were, the lawsuit stated.
Nunez said she tripped over one of the wires and fell forward. She said the fall fractured her elbow on her right arm and sought damages amounting to $500,000.
NPS admitted that they did not remove the cables between the low cement posts located on the grass between Micro Beach Road and the stage for the event, admitted that it did not put up any warning signs in the vicinity of those cables, nor warded off the entire area adjacent to those cables, installed any temporary lighting in the vicinity of those cables, or placed an employee in the vicinity of those cables.
