Blanchard v. The Travelers Indemnity Company, et al, 15th Judicial District Court, August 21, 2026.
Our client was a 25 year old student at Blue Cliff College in Lafayette. She was sitting on a massage table in the practical learning room at the school when the table suddenly collapsed – its backrest rotating to almost 180 degrees to the south, causing her to be thrown off of the table, striking her head on the tile floor. The impact left her six months pregnant and unconscious on the floor for 15 minutes until EMS arrived. While she lay unconscious and her classmates were hysterical, taking her vitals, watching her stomach contract, and splashing water on her face, the principal of the school ran into the room, started inspecting the table and ran out of the room.
He would later opine there was “nothing wrong with the table” and “it must have been set up wrong”. In reality, the evidence established that the table was missing a 6-8” long spring, which would have prevented a collapse. After receiving notice of her claim, suddenly the narrative changed, and they started to blame our client for her own injuries, claiming she should not have been on the table in the first place. Then, evidence went missing. Statements taken of her classmates could not be located, inspection documents were shredded, and the expert that Blue Cliff had inspect the table was hidden from us – until we discovered him.
Our client suffered neck and back injuries as a result of this trauma. She had treated with physical therapy and pain management procedures, but she needed a neck surgery. She had not yet undergone the surgery because she was a single mom of three kids – one of whom was under 3. She plans to have the procedure the following year when all of her children are in school. Defendants challenged whether she really needed the surgery and why she had not had it.
The defendants never admitted responsibility in the four years since the accident occurred. They denied anything was wrong with the table, denied they were at fault, and even at times denied our expert even inspected the right table. They denied her injuries were from the accident – claiming they were preexisting and, at other times, denied she was injured at all. They followed her around for 29 days in an attempt to prove she was lying about her injuries.
After a five day trial, a Lafayette Parish jury awarded $875,000. With interest, the verdict is approximately $1.1 million. Additionally, because we filed our own offer of Judgment in May, the defendants will likely be taxed with over $100,000 of costs.
