Wednesday, May 6, 2009

$990,000.00 Settlement for Crushed Foot

From www.verdictsearch.com

MOTOR VEHICLE Pedestrian

Woman sustained crushed foot while walking in front of truck

SETTLEMENT $990,000.00

CASE E.D., Plaintiff, v. Miami
Provisions, Inc. and Ralph De Collibus, No. 06-04453 CA 11

COURT Miami-Dade County Circuit Court,
11th, FL

JUDGE Robert Scipio

PLAINTIFF ATTORNEY(S) David W. Lipcon and Mitchell J. Lipcon of Lipcon & Lipcon, PA

FACTS & ALLEGATIONS Plaintiff, 81, retired, was planning on meeting her grandson at the Burger King located at Collins Avenue near 183rd Street for breakfast. Plaintiff did not own a car and used public transportation for all her needs. She had just dropped off some mail at a nearby post office and was walking northbound on the sidewalk on Collins Avenue, heading for the restaurant. A Boar's Head delivery truck, owned by Miami Provisions Inc. and driven by Ralph De Cc-Anhui, was stopped at the stop sign at a shopping mall exit, facing Collins Avenue, intending to turn right (southbound). After making sure the truck was stopped, Plaintiff proceeded to walk in front of it, making it all the way across the nose of the vehicle, from its right to the left, before the truck started forward, hitting her and running over her left leg.

Plaintiff sued De Collibus and Miami Provisions for his neg­ligent operation of a motor vehicle. Her lawyers contended that she had the right of way and had walked most of the way across the front of the truck before De Collibus negligently struck her.

The defense contended that Plaintiff was comparatively neg­ligent. It contended that Plaintiff crossed in front of the large truck in a way that may have blocked the driver's view of her.

INJURIES/DAMAGES amputation, below-the-knee: crush injury, .foot

Plaintiff’s left foot was crushed requiring multiple surgeries and eventually a below-the-knee amputation. Plaintiff sought damages for her medical bills and her past and future pain and suffering.

RESULT The case settled pretrial for $990,000.

INSURER(S) Allstate Insurance Company

Trip and Fall results in $500,000.00 award to client.

From www.verdictsearch.com

PREMISES LIABILITY

Trip and Fall

Man tripped on rebar protruding from parking block

SETTLEMENT $500,000

CASE R.A., and E.R., his Wife v. Al McCormick, No. 06-02605 CA 30

COURT Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, 11th, FL

JUDGE Kevin Etnas

ATTORNEY(S) David W. Lipcon and Mitchell J Lipcon, of Lipcon & Lipcon P.A.,

DEFENSE ATIORNEY(S) The Hartford Insurance Group, Key Biscayne, FL

FACTS & ALLEGATIONS:

Plaintiff, 67, a business owner, was working at his shop. He leased the shop from Defendant and had done so for 20 years. Plaintiff was walking through the parking lot/driveway owned by Defendant, on his way to a coffee shop. He claimed that he was careful to walk along the curb, mindful of any traffic that may approach him. He contended that he was unaware of a piece of rebar protruding out onto the street driveway, extend­ing from a broken parking block that was camouflaged by grass, mud and leaves. The rebar caught his foot, causing him to fall to the ground, crushing his right hip and injuring his knee.

Plaintiff sued Defendant on a premises liability theory, claim­ing negligent maintenance.

Plaintiff’s lawyers contended that about a year before the acci­dent, Defendant placed the parking blocks on the grass abut­ting the street to deter trucks from driving over his it. The trucks began to hit the parking blocks, causing them to break. Witnesses testified that the blocks had been broken for some time, but the rebar was impossible to see due to the debris and mud around it.

Plaintiff’s lawyers argued that Defendant had a duty, under state law, to maintain his property in a safe condition and warn of any dangers that may lie hidden on his property. He has a further "special relationship" with Plaintiff as he is his land­lord.

The defense contended that Plaintiff should have seen the rebar and was comparatively negligent for failing to pay atten­tion to where he was stepping.

INJURIES/DAMAGES embolism; hardware implanted; hip,. internal fixation; knee; open reduction; pulmonary

When Plaintiff fell, he injured his hip and knee. He testified that it took almost 25 minutes for anyone to hear his cries of help. Plaintiff underwent surgery on April 21, 2004, to repair his hip. His treating physician, Ivan Barrios, performed the open reduction and internal fixation of his hip fracture using plates, springs and bone grafting. As part of the procedure, Plaintiff’s muscles were detached from the area. The fracture essentially consisted of two large fragments involving a significant portion of the posterior and superior wall of the acetabulurn causing instability. There were also lesser fracture fragments that were scattered in the area. The fragments were repositioned and fixed with K-wires before they were permanently Fixated with a spring plate. The spring plate had to be fixated with screws after prop­er drilling of the screw holes. After a lengthy procedure, the muscles were reattached to the region by being threaded by drill holes that were created.

Only two weeks after returning home, Plaintiff reported again to the hospital due to pain in his right lower back and short­ness of breath. It was discovered that as result of his injuries, surgery and recovery, Plaintiff was now suffering from acute dys­pnea, pleuritic pain/hematuria and pulmonary embolism. The stabbing pain in his right lung became progressively worse. He became nauseous. CT scans at Pan American confirmed bilat­eral pulmonary thromboemboli. He was admitted and placed on a course of coumadin so he could resume physical therapy. Again, he was given medication for severe pain. He had to remain at Pan American Hospital for about a month.

Plaintiff testified that he was in regular pain and suffered a severe decrease in motion and strength in his legs.

RESULT A pretrial settlement for $500,000 was reached.

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