On September 5, 2018, Nidia Vasquez was injured while working as a laborer at a demolition and construction site in Buffalo when she was struck on her head and a shoulder by an unsecured ladder that had been standing against a wall.
Ms. Vasquez, then 57 years old, sued the site owner, the construction manager
On August 2, 2018, a state trooper was responding to a 911 call in the Town of Ulster when he drove his police car into the other lane of traffic and collided head-on with a car driven in the opposite lane of traffic by Kathryn Bradley-Chernis.
Ms. Bradley-Chernis, then 44 years old, claimed she sustained
On July 3, 2012, a New Rochelle police officer drove his official vehicle into the rear of another vehicle. Edward Carter, a passenger in the other vehicle, sued both drivers for his personal injuries. A Westchester jury ruled that both drivers were at fault.
In a separate damages only trial, the jury determined that
In 2021 and twice this year, New York’s appellate courts issued a total of four decisions in shoulder injury cases that addressed the reasonableness of the damages awarded at the trial in each case.
Here are summaries of those cases (all of which are discussed in detail in articles we published here at New York
On March 12, 2013, Richard Gontarek tripped and fell between flights of the steps of the staircase at the 59th Street and Lexington Avenue subway station in Manhattan.
Mr. Gontarek, then 47 years old, sued the transit authority claiming he fell and sustained injuries because of cracked tiles on the staircase platform. A Manhattan jury
On June 25, 2013, Jeffrey Scott was riding his motorized bicycle in the bike lane on Walton Avenue in the Bronx when he collided with a right turning school bus.
Mr. Scott, then a 42 year old private equity manager, sued the bus driver and owner claiming the driver was fully at fault and
On December 10, 2012, Adalberto Santiago was a 31 year old New York City police officer operating his patrol car when he received an emergency dispatch calling for assistance to a fellow officer. Officer Santiago activated his lights and sirens and took off. On his way to his fellow officer in need, Officer Santiago’s
On July 6, 2011, Nicholas Natoli, a 40 year old laborer, was injured when he and his coworker attempted to move a large wooden pallet at a construction site. His coworker lost his grip and the 175 pound pallet fell on Mr. Natoli causing substantial injuries to his arm and shoulder. The incident took
On September 6, 2006, Pauline Barrett was attempting to exit the city bus she’d been on when her right heel got caught in a hole in the rear stairwell of the bus.
Barrett sued the transit authority claiming that she sustained serious injuries as a result of a dangerous stairwell defect that the defendant should
On June 4, 2007, Rowan Lewis was a front seat passenger in a van on a parkway in New Jersey on his way to work. In a single car accident, the van spun out of control and flipped over on its back.
In his ensuing lawsuit against the van owner, Mr. Lewis claimed that he