A civil lawsuit stemming from the death of a Cranberry woman who suffered fatal injuries when she fell down the front steps of the Oil City Library in 2015 has been continued.
The trial in the civil suit brought by David Brown against the City of Oil City and contractors who worked on the library steps was scheduled to be held last week in the Venango County Court of Common Pleas after being appealed all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Brown’s wife, Kathryn, was the woman who fell down the steps in November 2015 and died a few days later.
On June 6, 2016, according to court documents, David Brown filed a “trespass complaint” against the City of Oil City and the Oil Region Library Association “alleging that poor construction or maintenance of the library steps” caused Kathryn Brown’s fall and subsequent death.
He then amended the complaint to also name the people involved in constructing the library steps in 2011.
To date, the case of Brown vs. Oil City has never gone to a trial.
In October 2019, Venango County Judge Robert Boyer ruled in favor of the contractors, and David Brown appealed that judgment.
In 2021, the state Commonwealth Court heard the case and unanimously reversed the Venango County court decision and remanded the case for further proceedings.
The contractors appealed the Commonwealth Court decision to the state Supreme Court, and the high court affirmed the Commonwealth Court decision last May, remanding the case to the trial court in Venango County for further proceedings.
