On October 5, 2013, Christine O’Connell was sitting in her car stopped at a red light in Hamburg (a Buffalo suburb) when another driver drove through the light causing a crash. Christine, then a 24 year old student, declined medical treatment at the scene but called her doctor that night complaining of low back
Spinal Fusion Surgery
Defendant’s Challenges to Large Pain and Suffering Damages Award Upheld on Appeal in Motor Vehicle Accident Case
On January 6, 2015, Kenia Cabrera had just finished work at a Dunkin Donuts shop located at LaGuardia Airport and had returned to the employee parking lot to retrieve her car and go home. As she was exiting the lot, a Mack truck spreading salt to keep the lot free of ice struck her car…
Trial Judge’s Pain and Suffering Award Increased on Appeal in Construction Worker’s Spinal Injury Case
On July 3, 2013, Xiaoen Xie, a welder working at a construction site in Queens, was injured when he fell from the ground floor to the basement 10 feet below.
Mr. Xie, then 47 years old, was rushed to the hospital where he was treated for spinal injuries.
In his ensuing lawsuit against the…
Future Pain and Suffering Award Increased in Rear-End Car Crash Case
On November 16, 2015, Roseann Maurer was stopped in her car waiting to tun left into a driveway on Big Tree Road in Wales (about 25 miles southeast of Buffalo) when another car struck hers in the rear end. Ms. Maurer sustained knee, neck and low back injuries.
After summary judgment as to liability…
Appellate Court Affirms Modest Jury Awards to Three Plaintiffs Claiming Spinal and Shoulder Injuries in Rear End Car Crash Case
On February 3, 2010, Emilio Carino was driving his van in the Bronx with two passengers. While stopped at a red light, the van was struck in the rear by another vehicle.
Carino and his passengers sued the other driver who conceded liability. A trial on damages ensued and the Bronx jury awarded pain and…
Court Rejects Plaintiff’s Claim that Spinal Injury Pain and Suffering Award is Inadequate
On January 24, 2014, Barbara Murphy was driving northbound on the Saw Mill River Parkway in Dobbs Ferry. Chris Ford was driving southbound before making a left turn and losing control of his car whereupon Ms. Murphy’s car was struck and she was injured.
Murphy, then 58 years old, claimed that she sustained severe spinal…
Appellate Court Increases Jury’s Neck Injury Pain and Suffering Damages Award
On March 16, 2013, Alfred Chung was stopped at a red light at 216th Street and White Plains Road in the Bronx when his car was struck in the rear by a vehicle driven by Rachelle Shaw.
In his ensuing lawsuit, Mr. Chung obtained summary judgment determining that the accident was wholly the fault of…
Substantial Award for 74-Year Old Man in Slip and Fall Case
On November 16, 2011, Lush Dacaj slipped on concrete stairs going down to the subway at Rockefeller Center at Sixth Avenue and West 47th Street in Manhattan.
Dacaj slipped on the tread of the third-highest step and fell to the bottom of the stairs sustaining serious neck injuries.
In his ensuing lawsuit against the…
Huge Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Case Damages Verdict Reduced by Trial Judge
On November 22, 2002 Edward Beloyianis, then 14 years old, underwent spinal surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center intended to correct long-standing severe congenital scoliosis.
He came out of the surgery paralyzed from the waist down.
In his ensuing medical malpractice lawsuit, plaintiff claimed that that the surgeon and hospital should have sent Edward…
Appellate Court Affirms Court of Claims Awards in Spinal Injury Case
On September 21, 2011 Mark Fabiano, then 49 years old, was injured when he fell 18 feet to the pavement from a scaffold that he was helping to erect under a New York State Thruway bridge in Catskill.
In the ensuing Court of Claims lawsuit, Mr. Fabiano’s motion for summary judgment of liability under Labor…