Planning on visiting Ansonia City Hall anytime soon?
Watch your step.
A Seymour lawyer says he is considering suing the City of Ansonia after falling in front of City Hall in December.
Steven Kulas, who is also the head of Seymour’s Democratic party and sits on Seymour’s Library Board of Directors and Conservation Commission, wrote a letter to the city Jan. 4 in which he said the fall caused him “severe injuries and damages” which “have caused and will continue to cause severe pain and suffering, great mental anxiety and distress of mind.”
Reached Thursday (March 14) by phone, Kulas said he has not yet decided whether to actually sue Ansonia.
“I haven’t made a decision, I’m simply reserving my rights,” Kulas said. “Three months from now if the doctor tells me there’s a serious break and i need an operation, I would have forfeited (the opportunity to recover damages) by not putting that notice in.”
He said he didn’t yet have a specific dollar amount in mind.
In his letter to the city, which is posted at the end of this story, Kulas said he was leaving City Hall about 11 a.m. on Dec. 5 “when he was caused to fall by the uneven and depressed surface of the steps.”
His letter goes on to call the steps “dangerous, unsafe, and defective.”
His injuries, according to the letter:
- Left knee pain
- Cuts and abrasions to the left knee
- Bruises to his sternum and ribs
- Severe shock to the nervous system
“It was a miserable Christmas,” Kulas said of his injuries.
He said didn’t seek medical attention for his injuries on the day of the fall, but did so “soon” after.
Kulas said he sent the letter in January with a dual purpose: to reserve his rights in case he wants to sue, and alert the city to the poor condition of the steps.
“No one has contacted me whatsoever,” he said.
“I would hope at least they would go out and look at the condition of the stairs, because it’s uneven and worn in many places,” Kulas said.
An iron railing to the side of the stairs broke his fall, Kulas said.
“I may have fallen all the way down the steps but for that railing,” he said.
Last week Aldermen officially referred Kulas’ complaint to the city’s Corporation Counsel, Kevin Blake.
Ansonia Mayor James Della Volpe said Friday (March 15) that nobody else has had a problem with the steps during his tenure.
“That’s the first complaint we’ve ever received,” Della Volpe said. “Those steps have been here forever. It’s something we’ll look into and try to repair. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen again in the future.”
The mayor worried the repairs would cost “thousands.”
“We just can’t cut a piece out,” he said while inspecting the stairs Friday morning.