A woman in her late 70s has reached a settlement of her lawsuit in which she alleged negligence by the producer of the Miss Latina Cosmopolitan pageant caused the injuries she suffered after tripping and falling to the stage floor while competing in a competition for seniors in 2016.
Attorney Luan Phan filed court papers on April 12 in Los Angeles Superior Court stating that plaintiff Ana Maria Gomez’s lawsuit was resolved. No terms were divulged.
Gomez filed the personal injury suit in November 2016. She named as defendants pageant producer Luis Valdivia and Fox Investment Co. LLC. Fox Investment operates the Los Angeles Theatre, where the fall took place.
The suit sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Valdivia and Fox Investment denied any wrongdoing.
According to the lawsuit, Gomez, then 77, was invited by the pageant and Valdivia to take part in the competition on April 16, 2016. She wore a formal dress on stage and was unable to fully see the floor as she walked, the suit stated.
Gomez “was unaware that the stage floor was in disrepair and that there were several pieces of the wooden planks that were uneven and lifted up, and others that were held down by tape,” her suit stated.
Gomez’s shoe caught on one of the raised planks, causing her to “trip and fall hard to the stage floor,” fracturing her left wrist, according to her complaint.
Gomez said her wrist swelled to the point it could not be put in a cast until several days after the fall. She also sustained contusions and bruises to other parts of her body, her suit stated.
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