An (alleged) trip & fall at the city zoo, then a lawsuit

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---You can stand outside the 88,000-gallon glass enclosure at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo and watch sea lions and harbor seals glide through water and make their slippery way up on to large rocks.

The entrance into the zoo’s Coastal Cove is a stone-style path that slopes slightly, nothing visibly dangerous to the average visitor.

Here's what it looks like now:

Entering Coastal Cove to see sea lions and harbor seals frolic at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo.

One area woman is suing the zoo and two construction companies to say otherwise.

In a February filing in Allen Superior Court, Pamela Fields claims that on Aug. 9, 2024, she took a spill in the area around the sea lions exhibit. The “trip and fall,” she said, resulted in  permanent injuries.

The exhibit’s renovation, going on at that time, ended in May 2025 and, apparently, Hagerman Construction and local fencing contractor, Gleave Construction, were involved, as indicated in court filings.

Fields is suing the zoo and the two construction companies for the whole shebang -medical expenses, lost wages, pain, suffering, anguish and “other special and general damages in an amount to be proven at trial.”

A beautiful day at the renovated Coastal Cove exhibit at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo.

Her husband, David Fields, is also in on the lawsuit, claiming he lost “spousal services and consortium.”

Thursday week, the case was in front of Allen Superior Court Judge Jason Custer for its initial hearing, attorney David S. Christoff appearing via Zoom for the Fields. 

Several attorneys with Truitt Law offices based in Huntington are working the lawsuit besides Christoff, including Phillip A. Truitt, Alex Brown, Emily Witney and Richard Truitt.

The initial hearing became a case management conference. Attorneys for the zoo and Hagerman also appeared. 

They were Noah Tallman of FBT Gibbons, LLP in Indianapolis, the legal counsel for Hagerman Construction, who appeared in person, and Patrick Murphy, an attorney with Barrett & McNagny, for the Fort Wayne Zoological Society via Zoom. 

Gleave, represented by Andrew Hahn of Selective Staff Counsel of Indiana in Indianapolis, was a no show at the proceedings that took place in Custer’s office, per court documents.

The three being sued deny the allegations.

The Zoo’s response states that the Fields “failed to mitigate their damages or injuries, thus barring their right to recover,”  and that their medical bills were paid “by a collateral source.”

The response also states that the couple “failed to exercise reasonable care for their own safety; knowingly and voluntarily encountered any alleged open and obvious condition; and /or assumed the risks attendant to their conduct.”

There’s more, but these seem to be the highlights.

Last Thursday, the case was to be heard in one of the first floor courtrooms at the Allen County Courthouse, but that courtroom was tied up with criminal defendants so the hearing was moved to the judge’s office. 

The Probable Cause did attempt to cover the courtroom hearing, but was unsuccessful.

That leaves reporting about the complaint to the court filings which are short on details. There’s no information on Pamela Fields’ age or if she had any pre-existing physical conditions prior to the fall, what footwear she was wearing or what precipitated the trip that resulted in the fall. 

A reporter would want to know did Fields leave the zoo on a gurney, for instance, or did the injuries become evident later? Did she take herself to an emergency room, perhaps? On the Fort Wayne Police Department’s activity log, there’s no record of an EMS assist at the zoo that day.

According to online weather records, Aug 9, 2024 was sunny so if the exhibit was slippery, then why was that? 

Here’s what was written in the complaint:

“The area around the sea lion exhibit represented a dangerous condition that existed on the premises,” and “the defendant(s) knew or should have known of the dangerous condition, but negligently failed to use reasonable care to protect Plaintiff Pamela Fields from it.”

According to the zoo’s website, 600,000 people visit the zoo every year, 40% of them from Allen County, the rest from all over.

Even with that many visitors, legal cases involving the Fort Wayne zoo appear to be limited to folks who worked for the zoo who are having or had their wages garnished.

There could be a trial; a pre trial conference is scheduled for Feb. 16, 2027. 

But there again, it could be "settled." Perhaps the public will never know what occurred that August day. The judge ordered the matter to mediation and appointed Dan Palmer, mediator.