New Jersey's Supreme Court has ordered a retrial in a lawsuit filed by a woman who got locked in a cemetery and broke her leg climbing over a wall to get out.
Suzanne Ogborne, of South Amboy, was 35 years old in November 2001 when she went for a lunchtime walk through Mercer Cemetery Park in Trenton.
As she tried to leave, she found the gate locked. Finding no other way to exit, she climbed over the 3-foot brick wall and was injured when she dropped to the ground.
Ogborne sued the City of Trenton, which maintains the cemetery, saying a city employee was supposed to check the grounds first before locking the gate.
She won and a jury awarded her more than $1.6 million.
The city appealed, and the appeals court said the trial court applied too lenient a standard of liability. The Supreme Court agreed and ordered the case retried using a different standard.
