American Dream sued by woman who says she was injured by motorized stuffed animal ride
You may have seen those large motorized stuffed animals that kids and parents ride through some parts of the American Dream mall. They include plushy zebras, elephants tigers and hippos.
An elderly woman is suing the East Rutherford mega-mall and ride operator, alleging she was struck and seriously injured by those animals.
It marks the latest legal trouble for the beleaguered retail and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands. Those legal woes range from a broken leg to slip-and-falls, knocked-out teeth, unpaid construction bills and defaults on a multimillion-dollar loan.
The mammoth entertainment complex, operated by Canadian developer Triple Five, has added an indoor ski slope, a 300-foot Ferris wheel with dramatic views of Manhattan, an ice-skating rink, an amusement park and a water park, among other attractions.
In this latest suit, Shirley, New York, resident Trinidad Javier alleges that the mall and the operators of these rides, called Dream Riders, failed to follow the proper safety protocols that could have prevented her injury.
As a result, the lawsuit says, Javier sustained injuries to her spine during the Jan. 13 incident and had to undergo surgery. She’s seeking damages for “conscious pain and suffering, physical disability, emotional trauma, loss of enjoyment of life” and “economic loss,” the suit reads.
The suit alleges that the ride operator, the mall and its owners failed to provide a specified area where mall patrons could walk without danger of being struck by these rides, and a specified area where the rides could be operated.
It also says the defendants failed to ensure that children operating the rides were adequately supervised. The Dream Riders were able to be operated at a “dangerous and excessive speed,” according to the suit.
“They can travel faster than somebody can walk,” said Javier’s attorney, Mark A. Apostolos, from the Hackensack law firm Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo.
“It’s their responsibility to make sure that when people walk into the mall, they’re provided a safe place to walk,” Apostolos continued. “So it’s up to them if they want to make it safe or not.”
A spokesperson for the mall did not immediately comment. Dream Riders did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Headaches for American Dream
“Since their inception, people have suffered injuries in amusement parks and people have sued for their injuries,” Solangel Maldonado, a professor at Seton Hall Law School, said last year.
Maldonado noted that injuries at a theme park, especially one that is open all year, are to be expected.
“Injuries are just something that happens at amusement parks,” Maldonado said.
In February 2023, a decorative helicopter at the DreamWorks Water Park fell from the ceiling and injured four patrons, though no legal action has been filed. Last summer, cleaners at the mall allege they were fired for trying to organize a union.
American Dream’s losses quadrupled in one year, according to a Bloomberg report and a securities filing released in September 2023, from $60 million to $245 million.
Sales slowed in the final three months of 2023, which included the often-busy holiday shopping season, another Bloomberg report said.
The venue was 86% leased as of Dec. 31, 2023, public records show. In 2022, NorthJersey.com reported that the mall owed at least $9 million in negotiated payments to a total of 14 towns in the region. Local officials said those payments were due when the mall opened its theme park in October 2019.
But the officials said the megamall wasn’t making the payments, with the mall allegedly arguing that it was not on the hook for those payments because the mall wasn’t 100% leased and was not technically fully open. Officials including East Rutherford Mayor Jeffrey Lahullier questioned whether the mall would ever be at 100%.
The lawsuits and failure to pay debts “has the effect of buying them time, which gives them the opportunity to renegotiate things” more in the mall owners’ favor, said Marc Pfeiffer, assistant director at Rutgers University's Bloustein local government research center.
Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.
Email: munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: American Dream lawsuit: Woman claims injury by stuffed animal ride
