New Middletown couple sues county

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A New Middletown woman and her husband have sued Mahoning County, saying the county negligently caused the woman to slip and fall and suffer serious injuries by not mopping up a puddle of water on a restroom floor at Oakhill Renaissance Place on Oct. 3, 2012.

Laurie Bartholomew and her husband, Jeffrey, of Foster Drive, filed the suit last week in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, seeking damages in excess of $25,000.

The lawsuit, filed by Atty. James R. Lanzo, is assigned to Judge Shirley J. Christian.

Gina Bricker, an assistant county prosecutor, said the county likely will defend the lawsuit on the grounds of sovereign immunity — the legal principle that governments generally can’t successfully be sued unless their conduct rises above negligence into willful or wanton behavior.

The lawsuit says the county auto title department was doing business at Oak- hill when Bartholomew fell. The title department, however, did not actually open at Oakhill until Oct. 9, 2012, having moved there from the former South Side Annex on Market Street in the city’s Uptown District.