Jury awards more than $13 million to ultramarathon athlete injured in fall on a Seattle sidewalk

SEATTLE (AP) — A jury awarded $13.1 million to an ultramarathon athlete who was severely injured when she fell on a Seattle sidewalk in 2021.

The award by a King County jury found that the city of Seattle and the owners of an apartment building are responsible for the amount, the Seattle Times reported.

Lesley Mettler Auld, 53, said in a news release issued by her attorneys on Friday that she will never run again and struggles to walk after the fall on a sidewalk in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood.

“Today, fully 34 months since the fall, I still have to pull myself up the stairs in my house on my hands and knees,” she said.

The professional fitness coach has completed numerous ultramarathons, which are races longer than the standard marathon distance of 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers), her lawyers said.

She fell on a stretch of sidewalk “perennially covered in water and algae”, according to her lawsuit. Other residents testified in court they had also fallen there.

Mettler Auld severely damaged her quadriceps and required multiple surgeries.

A spokesperson for the Seattle city attorney’s office declined to comment.