Smith was driving to work when an oak tree limb landed on her car, trapping her inside. She was taken to Baptist Hospital in Bowling Green after firemen spent nearly 20 minutes removing her from her car.

The oak tree was sitting on property belonging to David and Darlene Jones who reside at 1440 U.S. 31-W, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Their neighbor, Jon Adams, had recently done work that required the sewer system to be rerouted, thus requiring underground digging on adjacent properties.

Smith had a scan of her left hand and a CT scan of her head done by Dr. Weathers, who determined that her head was not injured.  Smith’s mother requested that she stay overnight for observation.  Smith began complaining of tingling in extremities and eventually lost feeling from the breast line down. Baptist Hospital is overseen by the Emergency Room Group.

She was transferred to Vandiver Hospital in Nashville, TN where she received a scan of her spinal cord by Dr. Kate Jeffries. It appeared that she had a spinal cord injury, and her paralysis was confirmed. After her hospital stay, she completed eight weeks of rehab.

Smith is now confined to a wheelchair and has no fine motor skills. A long-term care nurse estimates that her future medical expenses will cost at least $17 million.

Smith was paid regular pay for only 6 weeks, then she filed for disability and received $1,772 per month for six months.

I went to the Kentucky revised statutes and looked for information regarding these keywords.

One of the Statutes I found was KRS 413.125: This applies to our claim because it gives a statute of limitations on when people can file claims. states that lawsuits for damage to personal property, such as a vehicle or electronics, must be filed within two years. The clock typically starts when the property owner becomes aware of the damage. This means that Jane has until October of 2025 to file the claims.

The next set of claims I found in the KRS were on premise liability. The idea of duty of care comes into play in this case. They knew the property might be compromised, However they did nothing to fix it. The "open and obvious" doctrine comes into play as well. The limb was not obvious to the surroundings of Ms.Smith.

There are several chapters of the KRS and local Bowling Green city law regarding ordinances. These come into play to debate if the property was properly maintained at the time of the accident.

I then went to my primary sources the US Code. I found two pieces of law that apply to our claims. One being 15 USC 1640. This has to deal with premise liability of the federal level. This has many little situations but personal injury on a property is one of them. Lastly i s 10 USC 2737 which has to deal with federal property negligence.