A California jury recently awarded a $667,000 personal injury verdict to an elderly Turlock woman who was involved in a 2005 head-on collision caused by a teenager. 73-year-old Nell Mathis Fortner required two surgeries on her leg after a car driven by then-17-year-old John Henry Kamps Schollenberg turned right, veered into an oncoming lane and hit her car. While Fortner and her California personal injury attorney Frank Zumwalt made a $400,000 settlement offer to State Farm, which held the auto insurance policy for Schollenberg, the company declined and decided to go to trial. This proved to be a bad move for State Farm as the jury awarded Fortner an additional $267,000 at the end of the six-day trial.
The car accident occurred on January 13, 2005. At the time, Fortner was an in-home maid and on her way to care for a chemotherapy patient. Fortner was driving north of Modesto when Schollenberg, coming from the opposite direction, made a sharp right turn, veered into her lane and struck her vehicle head-on. Authorities estimated a 50-mph impact as Fortner was going 20 mph and Schollenberg was traveling 30 mph. While cited for traveling in the oncoming lane, Schollenberg was not prosecuted since officers did not do an accident reconstruction to prove he was recklessly speeding.
According to Zumwalt in an online story from the Modesto Bee, Fortner suffered a leg injury that has left her crippled, handicapped and impaired, and that the accident ultimately relegated her life to having a good meal and “hobbling around to doctors’ appointments.” He added that his client could no longer straighten her leg and now walks with a limp because of the accident. Schollenberg’s attorney, George Arata , could not be reached for comment but Zumwalt said in the story how his opposition tried to argue that some of Fortner’s injuries were from a pre-existing condition.
Late last week, a Hoboken jury awarded a man $11.6 million for the personal injuries he suffered in a strange 2004 accident. After breaking his foot in 1999, Michael Brady suffered from a severe chronic pain syndrome called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. While being transported by an ambulance in 2004 for physical therapy for his worsening condition, Brady fell down and broke his foot again when an ambulance driver swung the vehicle’s door into this crutches. Since that injury, Brady has been confined to a wheelchair, according to his personal injury attorney William L. Gold in a Journal Staff story.
Gold added that Brady’s daily living activities were severely impaired because of the second injury, which has also required him to have a full-time aide at his home. The story added that Phoenix-based company Multicare Ambulance was held responsible for Brady’s personal injuries.
Gold said in a press release that the original verdict from the eight-person jury was $14.5 million. Specifically, the original verdict had $5 million going to Brady for his pain and suffering and another $7 million for his future care costs. The jury also awarded $2.5 million to Brady’s wife. The press release added that the total amount was reduced by 20 percent, to the final $11.6 million, for comparative negligence.
Brady had originally broken his foot in an accident on a New York subway in 1999. He collected workers’ compensation as the RSD caused severe pain around the original injury. However, Gold said that his client’s RSD spread to his arms and all over his body after the second injury. Consequently, Gold said that Brady can’t use his left hand, which he described as basically turning into a claw.
A Stapleton, New York man who was injured in a 2005 car accident has settled his personal injury lawsuit for $100,000 with the man who hit him. 43-year-old William Johnson suffered severe right knee injuries requiring hospitalization and arthroscopic surgery when his car was struck by a vehicle which rolled through a stop sign.
A Staten Island Advance story said that Johnson was driving to Port Richmond on February 3, 2005 when the car driven by defendant Alexander J. Adelman rolled through the stop sign and hit Johnson’s vehicle in an intersection. Johnson later sued Adelman in the state Supreme Court in St. George. Johnson’s New York personal injury attorney Michael Bush said that Adelman’s insurance carrier paid his client the policy limit.
The city of Newark reached a $3.6 million personal injury settlement yesterday with a man and three women who were struck and injured by a stolen SUV that was fleeing from police in July 2001. A Star-Ledger story said that then 19-year-old Curtis Berry was paralyzed when the stolen SUV ran into a telephone pole and a group of pedestrians when trying to avoid hitting a compact car. Berry’s mother Violet and two other women, Jessica Pemberton and Desiree Chester, were also injured while 17-year-old teen Crystal Lee was killed in the car accident.
Under the terms of this personal injury settlement, Curtis Berry will receive $2.075 million after attorney fees and costs. Violet Berry, Pemberton and Chester will each receive $150,000. The Newark City Council approved the settlement with an 8-0 vote.
At the time of the accident, Newark police said they were pursuing three car thieves during a 10-mintue, high-speed chase. This incident occurred a week before 46-year-old Patricia Tarmell was struck by a stolen Lexus being pursued by police during a 100 mph high speed chase. The story added that these two incidents caused the Newark Police Department to change its chase policy.
Following this settlement, Corporation Counsel Aney Chandy said the city didn’t admit liability and believed that the officers did nothing wrong. Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, said that the question of whether these officers followed Attorney General chase guidelines was presented before a grand jury that ultimately decided to not bring charges.
Back in mid-January, The Injury Blog detailed how a California woman died hours after ingesting huge amounts of water during a radio station contest to win a Nintendo Wii, and here’s the latest developments in this tragic case. The Sacramento County district attorney’s office announced on Monday that no criminal charges will be filed against radio station 107.9 The End or any of its employees. A KCRA.com story said that the family of the deceased victim, Jennifer Strange, filed a wrongful death complaint seeking punitive, emotional and economic damages with the Sacramento County Superior Court in late January.
28-year-old Jennifer Strange died January 12th hours after drinking nearly two gallons of water during a morning radio contest for the Nintendo Wii video game system. Strange did not win the contest and was found dead later that day in her Rancho Cordova home. A preliminary coroner’s report detailed symptoms of water intoxication, and the Sacramento County district attorney’s office shortly began to investigate whether possible criminal charges could be filed in this case.
While listeners to the morning program actually called the radio station saying that people could die from this stunt. District Attorney Jan Scully said the facts and circumstances of this event do not support the filing of an involuntary manslaughter charge. Scully added that Jennifer Strange was an adult who voluntarily participated in the contest, knew what it was about, and could have stopped or discontinued her participation at any time.
Scully further said that there were no observable indications or symptoms that Strange required serious medical attention at the time. The district attorney’s office found that DJs interviewed Strange on the air without any difficulties. If such an emergency was observably present, the statement from the district attorney’s office indicated that the station employees would have been required to seek or provide medical aid to her. The attorney for Strange’s family, Roger Dreyer, said he was not surprised by the district attorney’s decision to not file criminal charges.
Last Friday, The Injury Blog detailed an apprehensible Chicago police brutality case in which an off-duty officer was caught on camera beating up a female bartender, and it now appears that the heat is being felt. Chicago Police Supt. Phil Cline abruptly resigned yesterday in the wake of two videotaped incidents of alleged barroom brutality by off-duty police officers and the investigation into another taped fight. While Cline was expected to retire later this year, his resignation especially seemed quickened by the brutal video showing off-duty officer Anthony Abbate beating up a female bartender who has not filed a personal injury lawsuit as of yet.
Apparently, the apple didn’t far off the tree for the Abbate family. Just as Cline resigned in the wake of the nationally-shown video depicting Anthony Abbate beating up the female bartender, a special story to the Daily Southtown reveals that a third-such taped incident of a barroom brawl actually involved Abbate’s brother, Terry. The story reported that 12-year Chicago police officer Terry M. Abbate is accused of fighting with an off-duty police officer from Washington, D.C. during a St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the Windy City.
According to the story, Abbate and the officer from Washington, D.C. were involved in a fight at a downtown Chicago bar. The story said that the videotape shows the two officers on the ground, and both men are later seen walking away when the fight ended. Chicago police spokesman Monique Bond said that D.C. officer did not file a complaint with the department’s Office of Professional Standards until ten days after the incident. While Bond did not say that the involved Chicago officer was Terry Abbate, other sources indicated that it was him.
Terry Abbate remains on active duty pending the outcome of a state attorney’s office investigation. The story added that the Chicago Police Department is quickly moving to fire Anthony Abbate for the February 19th incident. An unrelated videotaped brawl of six Chicago police officers beating up four businessmen at a bar occurred on December 15th.
An elderly Maine man who was injured during a medical procedure two years ago was recently awarded a $360,000 personal injury settlement while his wife was granted an additional $40,000 for her suffering. 76-year-old Rodney Sawtelle suffered a punctured ulna nerve when a Franklin Memorial Hospital nurse inserted a needle into his forearm during a hospital visit. Maine personal injury attorney Scott Lynch said that the injury left his client without the ability to use his right hand, which consequently prohibited him from performing duties at the heavy equipment garage that he owned and operated.
A SunJournal.com story said that the Maine jury took about 2½ hours to come to a 6-3 decision in favor of the right-handed Sawtelle, who also cannot effectively feed himself according to Lynch. The jury determined that Sawtelle was entitled to compensation for his inability to perform his job, which requires the use of both hands to operate heavy equipment. The jury kicked in $40,000 to Frances Sawtelle, who suffered through the loss of her husband’s wages.
The story said that the couple was happy with the Maine elderly abuse personal injury settlement. Married for 52 years, the couple added that the injury continues to affect their lives. The story added that the identity of the nurse was not immediately available, and the hospital was not reached for comment at the announcement of the settlement.
