On June 25, 2008 at about 3:30 a.m., Tiffany Halsey was a passenger in a city bus, on her way home from her job as the late shift cashier at New York Fried Chicken in Queens.

Suddenly, the bus veered off the roadway, mounted the sidewalk and struck a utility pole. Ms. Halsey, then 24 years old, was tossed and thrown about in her seat injuring her back, right shoulder and right arm. She was extricated from the bus by emergency personnel and taken to a hospital.

This is what the bus looked like at the scene – from an exhibit at the ensuing trial:

After a CT scan and X-Rays showed no fractures, Ms. Halsey was offered morphine for her pain and directed to follow up with her own physicians should the pain persist. It did and she then began a long course of medical treatment.

Halsey filed suit against the transit authority and the bus driver. The defendants conceded liability and a damages only trial was held in Queens in November 2011 at the end of which the jurors awarded plaintiff $3,578,000 for her pain and suffering ($578,000 past – 3 1/2 years, $3,000,000 future – 54 years).

The defendants appealed arguing that the $3,000,000 future damages award was excessive. In Halsey v. New York City Transit Authority (2d Dept. 2014), the entire award has been affirmed.

The court’s opinion sets out several details of plaintiff’s injuries and treatment. Essentially, plaintiff sustained a torn rotator cuff in her right shoulder, torn tendons in her right elbow and herniated discs in her lumbar spine. She underwent conservative treatment for three months or so including extensive physical therapy, the use of a sling for her arm and a brace for her back, a series of epidural steroid injections in her spine and narcotic pain medications.

Unable to do much of anything at all and with persistent pain, Ms. Halsey’s doctors recommended surgery and she was operated on three times. Here are the details of her three surgeries:

  • Surgery # 1 on 10/7/08: right shoulder arthroscopy, synovectomy, bursectomy, lysis of corcoacromial ligament and intraarticular debridement (to repair partial thickness rotator cuff tear, impingement syndrome and partial tear of the distal triceps tendon)
  • Surgery # 2 on 3/6/09: right elbow lateral epicondylectomy and repair of tendon aponeurosis
  • Surgery # 3 on 9/25/09: L4-5 laminectomy, diskectomy and fusion with application of an autogenous bone graft (to repair herniated discs at L4-L5)

At the time of trial, Ms. Halsey testified that her pain and limitations were continuing. All of her injuries were deemed permanent by her doctors and the prognosis for her back was gloomiest according to her treating orthopedic surgeon Phil Rafiy, M.D. who testified that Ms. Halsey had restricted ranges of motion which will limit her ability to bathe, clean and dress herself and that her injuries require ongoing injections, pain management and medications.

Testimony from defense medical experts, including orthopedic surgeon Edward L. Mills, M.D. and radiologist Joseph Tuvia, M.D., was presented in support of the defendants’ claim that Ms. Halsey’s injuries were not so severe as to require any surgery and, in any event, most were degenerative, pre-existed the accident and/or much improved and not at all debilitating.

Inside Information:

  • In defendants’ closing arguments,  counsel  suggested that $150,000 would be fair for plaintiff’s total pain and suffering ($100,000 past plus $50,000 future);  in plaintiff’s closing arguments, counsel asked for $17,000,000 ($5,000,000 past plus $12,000,000 future).
  • In addition to pain and suffering awards, the jury determined that plaintiff was entitled to an award for her medical expenses in the sum of $467,000 ($77,000 past, $385,000 future – 54 years). The largest parts of the future medical expenses claims were for lifetime medications (about $100,000) and steroid injections (about $150,000).