New Jersey Injury Lawyer Blog

The New Jersey Law Journal reported that Secaucus and seven other defendants agreed on June 9 to pay $335,000 to a woman who suffered afractured tibia as she tripped while crossing a town street in a rainstorm. On Nov 9, 2001, Theresa Guadara was crossing Front Street which had been unevenly restored after utility work. Due to injuries suffered, she needed reconstruction and bone grafts, continues to feel pain and cannot resume her work as a hairdresser.

Defense noted that Guadara was outside the crosswalk. The evidence showed some of her pain could have been caused by shingles and a post accident fracture.

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A Lake Hiawatha woman agreed last Tuesday to accept $577,500 to settle a Morris County suit over angle injuries suffered two years apart.

Marlene Draughn alleged that she fell on an ice-covered sidewalk in front of her apartment complex on Feb 21, 2003, five days after a heavy snowstorm, because the owner and manager failed to put down salt. Draughn, now 35, suffered a tri-malleolar fracture of the right ankle that required surgery, with plates and screws.

The ankle remained unstable and on Feb 2005, it gave way as she was descending a flight of stairs leaving work. Draughn sued owner Knoll Manor Associates. The defense claims their is no link between the two injuries but they felt that the proper business decision was to settle the suit.

~Michael Booth, New Jersey Law Journal

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A self-employed electrician injured in a worksite fall settled his Middlesex County suit for $839,000 on April 26.

In September 2003, Harold Klouser, of Edison, fell through an unrailed stair opening from the second floor to the basement of Monmouth Junction house, suffering fractures of the C6, C7, T2, T3 vertebrae.

Klouser, now 58, uses a cane, has sleep and motor control problems, and cannot bend his dominant right thumb.

Klouser sued general contractor Martin Brady and framing subcontractor Greenwoods Construction of Newark. Greenwoods filed a third-party suit against nailing subcontractor Ednamar Bernadinno. The defendants claimed Klouser failed to demonstrate that the lack of a barrier led to the accident.

~Charles Toutant, New Jersey Law Journal

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A Union County jury awarded $386,205 on Feb 10 to a tenant who broke her wrist in a stairway fall. Ignacia Flores fell on Aug 20, 2003 as she was going to her basement apartment in Elizabeth, on concrete steps coated with glossy paint. In her suit, she claimed that the landlord, Jose Alvarez, disregarded a warning on a paint can that an adhesive agent should be added if the paint is used on stairs.

Flores couldn't bend her wrist after the accident and so missed seven months from her job as a movie theater ticket-taker. She underwent physical therapy, acupuncture and pain injections. The jury awarded Ms. Flores $33,205 for unpaid medical bills, $3,000 for lost wages, and $350,000 for pain and suffering.
- Charles Toutant, New Jersey Law Journal

(In the extended entry you will find an example of interrogatory questions and answers for the plaintiff when a claim is filed. Please contact our office at 1-866-778-5500 if you have any questions)

Continue reading "$386,205 to Tenant for Fall" »

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$1.85 million was awarded to Ira Miller Jr. for having taken on herniated discs in his abdomen and lumbar, and stiffening bruises while car shopping at their local Chevrolet dealership. While walking through the icy parking lot, Miller slipped and suffered permanent injuries.

Miller underwent decompression and laminectomy surgery on two lower back discs and his thoracic herniation caused him to develop ‘drop foot’, which requires that he have a walker and a supportive vest. Miller’s surgery involved fusing two discs and moving his heart out of the way so that they could deflate one of his lungs which sent him into respiratory failure and a 10-day coma. The surgery got rid of the drop foot, but he must use a cane now and cannot sit for long periods of time.

The defense argued the iced parking lot, but photographs in the spring later proved that there were drainage problems that management was fully aware of.
- Mary P. Gallagher, New Jersey Law Journal

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$3.3 million will be awarded to Stacey Coles of Middletown after having become a quadriplegic in a diving accident. Coles broken her neck after diving into an empty boat slip on a date on August 10, 2002. The slip had become shallow from the buildup of dirt and silt. This slip was 2 feet in depth and neighboring slips were 5 feet. The suit was against the Belmar Borough for failure to warn the public of such danger.

The defense claims that she was drunk and acting recklessly. Nevertheless, the settlement was dispersed between Coles’s family.
- Charles Toutant, New Jersey Law Journal

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A school custodian injured when a ladder collapsed received $735,000 in settlement of his Mercer County product liability suit. George Tobey suffered arm fractures when he fell about 15 feet from a ladder while setting up for a play in the auditorium at Lawrence High School in Lawrenceville in December 1998. Tobey, who was awarded permanent disability, sued ladder manufacturer Up-Right Inc of Madera, California claiming that improper design and insufficient labeling rendered it unsafe.

Though Up-Right is in Chapter 11, Tobey obtained an order from the US bankruptcy court for the Northern District of California, allowing him to proceed with his case if he agreed to limit his recover to the defendant's $1 million policy with Lexington Insurance Co. of Boston. The Aug 24 settlement was placed in a structure and will pay out a total of $921,395 over 25 years. It was reached during mediation in June with former Superior Court Judge Doulgas Wolfson.
- Charles Toutant, New Jersey Law Journal

(In the extended entry you will find an example of interrogatory questions and answers for the plaintiff when a claim is filed. Please contact our office at 1-866-778-5500 if you have any questions)

Continue reading "$735,000 for Fall from Ladder" »

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Two roofers who suffered head and wrist injuries in a 25 foot fall from the roof of a building are splitting a $950,000 settlement, paid on Aug 30, in a suit against a contractor. While at a job site in Jersey City on Sept 20, 2003, Michael Weglarski slipped on a slippery polyvinylchloride roof, colliding with Jerzy Janowski, and causing both to fall. Weglarski injured his wrists, left wrist and lumbar vertebrae, and underwent brain and wrist surgeries.

Both men were employed by subcontractor Palariz of Springfield and general contractor Badger Roofing of Middlesex Township. The suit charged that the fall could have been prevented had Badger instructed the men to connect their harnesses. The settlement pays $700,000 to Janowski, and $220,000 to Weglarski.
- Lisa Brennan, New Jersey Law Journal

(In the extended entry you will find an example of interrogatory questions and answers for the plaintiff when a claim is filed. Please contact our office at 1-866-778-5500 if you have any questions)

Continue reading "$920,000 for Work Injury, Fall from Roof" »

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A Middlesex County jury on May 11 awarded $1.04 million to an East Brunswick woman who broke a hip slipping on ice at a Poconos hotel. On Feb 8, 2002, Nancy Pindilli parked next to a curb at the Poc-Mont Resort & Conference Center in Bushkill, PA and proceeded to walk across a snow-covered lawn where she fell because there was no sidewalk.

Photographs were shown of other guests' cars parked at the same spot, to prove pedestrian traffic was foreseeable. Pindilli was seen liable for parking the left side of her car at the curb and wearing high heels. Further, she had walked in the same spot before and so was familiar with the conditions.

Pindilli required replacement of her right hip joint and implantation of three pins in her right femur. She could not return to work as an ultrasound technician.She can now only perform sedentary work at lower wages.
- Charles Toutant, New Jersey Law Journal

(In the extended entry you will find an example of interrogatory questions and answers for the plaintiff when a claim is filed. Please contact our office at 1-866-778-5500 if you have any questions)

Continue reading "$1M for Hotel Slip and Fall" »

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A carpenter disabled in a 32 foot fall from a Brigantine beach house roof during prehurricane conditions agreed on May 16 to accept $2.25 million to settle his injury suit. Sean Lee alleged that the defendants failed to ensure that he use fall protection equipment in ordering him to sheath the roof while Hurricane Dennis was headed north from North Carolina in September 1999.

The Atlantic County case settled halfway through trial in Superior Court Judge Daryl Todd's courtroom. The accident caused a burst fracture of his first lumbar vertebrae and left him with erectile dysfunction and no control of his bladder and bowels. They placed the current value of his loss of income at $575,000 and his medical expenses at $232,000.
- Lisa Brennan, New Jersey Law Journal

(In the extended entry you will find an example of interrogatory questions and answers for the plaintiff when a claim is filed. Please contact our office at 1-866-778-5500 if you have any questions)

Continue reading "$2.25M for Fall From Roof" »

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A carpenter injured falling from a scaffold settled for $550,000 during trial on March 8. Pantelis Andriopoulos was at a home construction site in Edgewater on May 7, 2001, when the accident occurred. His employer had been hired by general contractor Assad Daibes & Sons Inc of Edgewater to build a 12 foot high wooden forms for pouring a concrete wall.

Andriopoulos was on scaffolding next to the forms to guide the pouring. A backhoe used by Daibes to pour the cement was not tall enough so workers piled a mound of dirt beneath it, but the back hoe was unsteady and kept bumping into the forms, loosening the studs until the forms collapsed, bringing down the wall and scaffolding.

Faugno says Andriopoulos suffered a displaced femoral fracture of his right leg and a head cut. He still limps. In late 2001, he began having back pain from a bulging disc caused by the limp. He returned to work on light duty in 2002 but stopped last May because of back pain and can no longer do physical labor.
- Mary P Gallagher, New Jersey Law Journal

(In the extended entry you will find an example of interrogatory questions and answers for the plaintiff when a claim is filed. Please contact our office at 1-866-778-5500 if you have any questions)

Continue reading "$550,000 for Fall from Scaffold" »

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A Marlboro homeowner on Jan 31 received the final payment of a $787,500 settlement for a hand injury caused by a fall from a ladder. Carmine Visone climbed the ladder on Sept 2001 to try to plug in a newly installed garage door opener cord dangling from the ceiling.

He lost his balance and grabbed the metal door brackets, tearing off most of his pinky and slicing ring and index finger tendons. Visone, now 53, still has pain and grip problems that affect his eating, driving and other abilities. Visone sued builder Calton Homes of Freehold, the outlet installer, EB Electric of Upper Darby PA, and JW Shuster and Son of Plainfield, the opener installer, alleging the outlet was installed beyond reach of the cord.

The parties settled after private mediation with retired Appellate Division Judge John Keefe.
-Mary P Gallagher, New Jersey Law Journal

(In the extended entry you will find an example of interrogatory questions and answers for the plaintiff when a claim is filed. Please contact our office at 1-866-778-5500 if you have any questions)

Continue reading "$787,500 for Hand Injury, Garage door" »

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On January 14, 2005, a settlement was reached between a part-time alarm company serviceman who suffered a left shoulder impingement falling on ice at a parking lot and the lot’s owner. Bryan VanVelson is to receive $515,000 for the incident that had occurred on February 8, 2001 when he was walking from his car to his job at Reliable Fire Inc in Old Bridge. VanVelson underwent two surgeries and has been unable to work since.

The suit claims that contractor best Cut Corp was negligent for not removing the ice four days after a snowstorm and the owner for not having provided proper lot lighting.
- John Covaleski, New Jersey Law Journal

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