The woman who was paralyzed last month when a tree fell on her SUV in East Dallas has filed a lawsuit against the property owner she alleges is responsible for the incident.
Maisie Marsau and her husband, Jack Marsau, filed suit against Dan Patterson, who owns the Wendover Road property where the tree was located and also serves as chairman of the Texas Trees Foundation.
“Despite his position and purported expertise in tree management and safety, defendant failed to properly inspect, maintain, and/or remove the dangerous tree from the property, which leaned heavily over a trafficked public roadway that serves as the carpool lane for Lakewood Elementary School — where parents pick up and drop off their kids daily,” the lawsuit alleges.
Marsau’s suit hits back at statements Patterson made to reporters who covered the Aug. 25 incident, arguing the tree falling was not a “random thing” but was instead a foreseeable, dangerous condition and something that “multiple people” approached him about over the years.
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“After this tragedy, the subject tree was found to have a hollow base and significant internal rotting among other issues, indicating that it had been in a state of decay for some time,” the suit alleges. “Tell-tale signs of this dangerous and defective condition existed prior to this incident.”
Marsau was trapped inside the car for more than an hour before she was extricated by first responders. She suffered a spinal cord injury and is now paralyzed from the neck down, according to the lawsuit, which also says the 32-year-old mother to a 6-month-old daughter will never “hold her child without assistance.”
The lawsuit, which brings claims for negligence, gross negligence and premises liability, is seeking more than $1 million in damages. The case was filed Sept. 8 and has been assigned to Dallas County District Judge Bridgett Whitmore.
A GoFundMe for the family had raised more than $230,000 as of Monday.
Marsau is represented by Michael Lyons, Jackson Smith and Mackenzie Howard of Lyons & Simmons.
Counsel for Patterson had not filed an appearance as of Monday.
The case number is DC-25-16155.