Expecto payout!

A California federal court earlier this month ruled in favor of 74-year-old Pamela Morrison, awarding her $7.25 million in damages after she says she suffered a crushed spine after slipping getting off of a ride at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood.

According to court documents, per the LA Times, during a September 2022 trip to the theme park with her grandson, Morrison had been asked to get off the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride after her harness failed to buckle. She then slipped when attempting to step from the moving walkway and onto solid ground, resulting in her injuries, which included a lower back fracture and a significant tear in the muscles around her hip.

In said documents, Morrison described the fall as thus, per the report: “The belt was still moving, and so my foot went on that belt and then … my other foot went on to the stationary floor, and it knocked me off my feet.”

Per a scheduling report filed in the suit and obtained by Entertainment Weekly, the plaintiff sought monetary damages “for various acts of negligence (including premise liability and negligent hiring and supervision) resulting in multiple and severe injuries to plaintiff while she visited the premises at defendants’ amusement park – Universal Studios in Los Angeles, CA.”

The report continued, “As a lawful invitee and guest at Universal Studios, Mrs. Morrison sustained these life-changing injuries when she fell at the Harry Potter ride which was negligently operated, maintained, and otherwise controlled by Defendants, its employees, agents, and co-venturers.”

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According to the LA Times, lawyers for the defendants argued that Morrison “failed to use and exercise, for her own protection, the proper care, and precautions reasonably prudent people under the same or similar circumstances would have exercised” and that because video seemed to show Morrison’s attention being more focused on her grandson instead of where she was stepping, that she was at fault for the accident.

The outlet reports that in a review of the incident given in court, safety expert Ban Choi of the Institute of Risk & Safety Analyses wrote, “Entering and exiting a moving walkway perturbs the gait stability of the walkers, even when entering/exiting in the longitudinal direction of the moving walkway. Given that Plaintiff Morrison was walking in the lateral direction of the moving walkway while feeling rushed to get off the moving walkway, her gait instability would have been greater.”

According to a jury report obtained by EW, Morrison was awarded $250,000 for economic damages, $2 million for past noneconomic damages, and $5 million for future noneconomic damages.

One of the park’s most popular attractions, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2016. The attraction, which is billed as a “thrill” and “motion simulation” ride, takes passengers through Hogwarts in the dark, and uses a vehicle in which their legs dangle beneath them to simulate flight.