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Ga Supreme Court to hear lawsuit over deadly fall at Washington Park steps

The victim's family argues that Mercer University is liable for the dangerous steps at the park

MACON, Ga. — Georgia's Supreme Court will hear arguments next week over a lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who died after falling at a Macon Second Sunday concert at Washington Park.

The lawsuit against Mercer University was filed by the family of Sally Stofer, who died about six weeks after falling on the park steps in 2014.

According to the Georgia Supreme Court's summary of the case, the family is suing Mercer, because Stofer attended a 2014 free concert at the park that was "planned, promoted and hosted by Mercer's College Hill Alliance, a division of Mercer."

The park is owned by Macon-Bibb County, which allowed Mercer to use the site for free.

RELATED: Just Curious: What is the history of Washington Park?

The College Hill Alliance shut down in 2015 after Knight Foundation funding ended, the same year that the Second Sunday concerts were moved several blocks over to Coleman Hill.

According to the court summary, Stofer, a widowed grandmother, attended the concert with her sister in July 2014.

They parked at the Washington Street street level parking and descended the concrete steps into the park and sat on the grassy hill.

When leaving, according to the summary, they left by the same steps, but began at a lower section of steps that lacked a handrail. (Handrails were apparently added to that section of steps since 2014.)

Her sister reported that she turned around and saw her sister lose her balance, fall and hit her head on the concrete steps.

Stofer fell into a coma and never regained full consciousness. She was removed from life support and died on Aug. 28, 2014, according to the court.

Her family's lawyers argue that Mercer was negligent for inviting people into the park via the steep, slippery concrete steps.

But the university argues that they're protected from a lawsuit by the state's Recreational Property Act. That law protects property owners who invite people onto their property for "recreational purposes."

They asked a trial judge to throw the lawsuit out, but the judge decided to let a jury decide whether that state law applies to the case.

Stofer family lawyers argued that Mercer had both "both commercial and recreational purposes in hosting the concert."

"Not only did Mercer intend for its College Hill Alliance to increase the university's revenue and drive economic development, Mercer also admitted that the concert series improved the community surrounding Mercer's campus, which benefited Mercer in attracting students and faculty," the Stofer lawyers wrote.

They argue that the case should go to trial.

"Any concert organizer 'who invites the public into a crowded event, with dangerous stone stairways, must answer for negligently doing so,'" they wrote, according to the summary.

A Georgia Court of Appeals agreed with the local judge and the Stofer lawyers; Mercer's lawyers appealed the case to the state's highest court.

The court is scheduled to hear the case during their Tuesday, Jan. 22 session in Atlanta.

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