A Philadelphia jury awarded a woman more than $12 million after her car was hit from behind by a stolen vehicle, pushing her into oncoming traffic where she was then hit by a work van coming the opposite direction.

Just how much of that $12.1 million Sheri Mee will see is unclear considering that, of the three defendants, one settled for $100,000, another settled for an undisclosed amount and the driver of the stolen vehicle most likely won’t be able to pay the judgment, according to an attorney in the case.

In Mee v. Fabrizio , Mee sued the driver of the stolen vehicle, Michael Fabrizio Jr.; the company that owned the work van, Johnson Controls Inc.; and the owner of the stolen vehicle, Thomas Fitzpatrick, because he left his car unlocked and running with the keys in the ignition, according to court documents and Mee’s attorney, Thomas F. Sacchetta of Sacchetta & Baldino in Media, Pa.

Mee settled prior to trial with car owner Fitzpatrick for his motor vehicle insurance policy limits of $100,000 through Hartford Financial Services Group, according to a joint tortfeasor release.

Johnson Controls Inc., which was sued along with its driver Richard Evans and JCI Building Efficiency, settled during the trial, according to the trial worksheet. Sacchetta said he couldn’t disclose the amount of the settlement, but said it was enough to make his client happy despite the fact that it took out the possibility of the company being held jointly and severally liable for a jury verdict against Fabrizio, who Sacchetta said was unlikely to be able to pay out the damages.

Judge Esther R. Sylvester entered a directed verdict against Fabrizio on the issues of negligence and factual cause of injury. On Feb. 24, the jury came back with a verdict on damages against Fabrizio in the amount of $12,103,322.

The biggest portion of that verdict, or $3.49 million, was for future medical expenses. The jury also awarded $1.75 million each for future pain and suffering, embarrassment and humiliation, enjoyment of life and disfigurement. It awarded Mee $1 million in punitive damages. The jurors awarded Mee $400,310 for future lost earnings and $48,000 for past lost earnings. They awarded her more than $66,000 in medical expenses, according to the verdict sheet.

The accident occurred Sept. 12, 2008 in Delaware County, Pa. Mee was driving her Honda Civic southbound on Bishop Avenue on her way to work. Fabrizio had stolen Fitzpatrick’s Ford Taurus from his house in Drexel Hill and was also driving it southbound on Bishop Avenue, according to a pretrial memorandum in the case.

Evans was driving a 2006 Chevrolet Express van in the northbound lane while working for Johnson Controls. Mee had stopped to make a left turn when she was struck from behind by Fabrizio, who fled the scene with a passenger in the Taurus, according to court documents.

Mee was pushed across the median into the northbound lane when she was struck broadside on the passenger side of her vehicle by the van driven by Evans. Mee was extracted from the vehicle and taken to Crozer-Chester Medical Center’s trauma unit. She was later transferred to a rehabilitation center where she remained until Oct. 8, 2008, according to court papers.

An “event data recorder” recovered from the Johnson Controls van showed Evans was driving 48 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour speed zone at the time of the accident. Evans also testified he was on his cell phone at the time of the accident, according to court documents.

Mee, now 38, suffered a broken clavicle, sternum and femur along with three broken vertebrae. She has a rod in her femur and her legs are now different lengths, causing her to limp and need a cane. Mee also suffered brain injuries and has not been able to return to work or independently care for her autistic son or her war veteran father who is blind from a landmine accident, Sacchetta said. She has two children. Aside from physical issues, Mee also has memory and cognition problems, according to her pretrial memorandum.

The demand going into trial was $10 million, according to the memorandum. Johnson Controls said in its pretrial memorandum that the demand against it was $5 million and no offer had been made at that time.The company said in the memorandum that Mee’s car was pushed in front of Evans who “unavoidably struck” it.

“There was nothing Evans could have done about it,” Johnson Controls said in its memorandum filed by attorney Aaron Byrd-Leitner of Margolis Edelstein.

“Any jury — in Philadelphia or otherwise — will understand the dynamics of this accident and will know who is obviously at fault,” Johnson Controls said in the memorandum. “Any games that plaintiff’s attorney intends to play with trying to attach ‘1 percent’ of liability on the part of defendants JCI and Evans is farfetched, obfuscates the truth and borders on an abuse of process when considering that the clear and obvious documented cause of this accident was the negligent and criminal conduct of defendants Fabrizio and [passenger Steven] McCall.”

McCall was dismissed from the case before trial. Fabrizio was not at the trial and did not file any responses, Sacchetta said.

Sacchetta said joint and several liability was key to getting a strong resolution for his client in this case.

“We had no doubt that we thought we could get 1 percent,” he said. “That’s why the joint and several, I think, is so critical here.”

Two of the three defendants were trying to avoid any responsibility, Sacchetta said, and his client just wanted them to pay their fair share.

“That was a line they were trying to tote that there was no way their client had any responsibility, but I think the joint and several in this particular case was appropriate and that’s why the case ended up in a good resolution for everybody,” Sacchetta said.

Sacchetta tried the case along with Bruce H. MacKnight Jr., an attorney with Sacchetta’s firm. Sacchetta said Johnson Controls was at trial until the two sides reached a settlement, but said the jury didn’t know a settlement was reached.

The case started out with 12 jurors, but after one didn’t return, the parties agreed to proceed with 11, he said.

In talking with the jurors after the trial, Sacchetta said it was clear they were concerned with the single mother’s ability to care for her son and father. They deliberated for five hours over the course of two days, he said.

Michael Martin Cohen of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., testified for Mee as a neurological expert. David L. Hopkins of King of Prussia, Pa., offered expert testimony on economics and Lorraine E. Buchanan of Independent Allied Health Consultants in Blue Bell, Pa., testified to Mee’s life care plan. Neuropsychologist David J. Massari of Clinical Neuropsychology Association in Philadelphia and physical medicine doctor William C. Murphy of Smart Rehabilitation in Media, also testified on Mee’s behalf.

Johnson Controls’ attorney Byrd-Leitner declined to comment.

Reprinted with permission from the “ISSUE DATE” edition of the “PUBLICATION.” © “2011”
ALM Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited.

A Delaware County jury awarded a severely injured man and his wife $7.6 million for injuries he suffered after a car accident in Chadds Ford.

While the award is one of the highest out of Delaware County in recent years, plaintiff Bernard Radecki will only see $100,000 of that award due to findings of liability, according to his attorney, Thomas F. Sacchetta of Sacchetta & Baldino in Media.

Radecki, 61 years old at the time, was driving west down Route 1/Baltimore Pike in October 1999 when Vincent J. Mow – who was driving east on the road – lost control of his vehicle from hydroplaning and ran into Radecki’s car, according to court documents.

Radecki was seriously injured by all accounts, breaking both of his legs and both arms and sustaining internal injuries. He had, according to court documents, at least six surgeries to be able to walk again and go on with normal activities.

About eight months after the surgery, Radecki attempted to go back to his job as a vice president of an energy-related company, but Sacchetta said he was only able to work for a year and a half before having to stop.

Mow’s attorney, George Dale of Kent & McBride in Philadelphia, said his client settled in 2003 for his policy’s limit of $100,000 under a joint tortfeasor release. He did not participate in trial other than to read that release into the record before the jury was selected, Dale said.

“We knew it was a bad case and Mr. Radecki was a really, really nice man,” Dale said.

After that, Sacchetta’s case focused on design and maintenance liability on behalf of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

“I expected a verdict against Mow, so I was trying to put some responsibility on PennDOT,” Sacchetta said.

He argued that the design and maintenance of the roadway allowed drains to clog and water to accumulate on the road. That, Sacchetta said, was what caused Mow to hydroplane and lose control of his car. He said he had also argued that Mow was driving too fast for conditions.

PennDOT, through Deputy Attorney General Allan Ells, argued that there was nothing improper about the design of the road. The department said the road was sloped in an appropriate way to allow for water to flow off, and it said there was no evidence of any maintenance problems that would have caused the drains to clog, according to court documents.

If PennDOT were found liable, any damages against it would have been limited to a statutory cap of $250,000, Sacchetta said.

There are reservations for attorneys thinking about taking these types of cases, he said, adding that there was no incentive for PennDOT to settle because its exposure was already limited. There were no offers from PennDOT prior to trial, Sacchetta said.
The trial was held before Delaware County Common Pleas Judge Charles B. Burr II from June 18 through June 21.

The eight-member jury deliberated on Thursday, June 21, for about two and a half hours, Sacchetta said. The jury found that Mow was 100 percent liable and did not find any negligence on the part of PennDOT. Radecki was awarded $6.6 million in compensable damages and his wife, Frances, was awarded $1 million for loss of consortium, according to court documents.

While Sacchetta said he wasn’t surprised that the jury awarded over $7.6 million, he said he was happy to see such a high amount, given that Delaware County is often looked at as “fairly conservative.”

“My client made a tremendous witness,” he said.

Sacchetta said he would probably file post-trial motions regarding PennDOT’s responsibility in the case.

Kevin Harley, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said the office was pleased with the verdict and that there was no negligence attributed to PennDOT.

Expert witnesses for the plaintiffs were engineer Joseph A. Thompson Jr. and orthopedic surgeon Charles D. Hummer, Sacchetta said. PennDOT used engineer Joseph P. Tarris as an expert witness, he said.

Reprinted with permission from the “ISSUE DATE” edition of the “PUBLICATION.” © “2007”
ALM Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited.

An elderly woman injured when her vehicle was hit from behind by a U-Haul truck was awarded $1.56 million after a one-day bench trial in Philadelphia before Judge Ellen Ceisler.

On Sept. 30, 2012, Lillian Parola was a rear passenger in a car on Easton Road in Warrington, near the intersection of Titus Avenue, when a vehicle driven by Steven Inlander collided with the rear of her stopped vehicle, according to the plaintiff’s pretrial memorandum. Inlander was operating a vehicle rented that day by his mother, Jill Inlander, the defense pretrial memo said.

The plaintiff’s memo said Parola suffered “life-altering injuries.” She was cut from the vehicle with the jaws of life and taken to Abington Memorial Hospital, where she remained over a month.

Parola sustained fractures to her jaw, ribs, right femoral neck and pelvis, as well as a C7 spinal fracture, left hip dislocation and lung contusion with right hemothorax, the memo said. She has required a permanent caretaker since the crash, walks with a walker, and has memory issues, in addition to constant pain, the memo said.

The memo said Parola has incurred more than $810,000 in medical expenses and has ongoing home care costs of $147 per day.

Steven Inlander’s insurance carrier tendered the $50,000 policy limit, and U-Haul tendered its $15,000 policy limit pertaining to Inlander. Jill Inlander’s carrier denied that its policy applied. Parola demanded $5 million, the memos said.

The judgment entered June 20 included $1 million for noneconomic damages, $348,000 for past medical expenses and $214,620 for future medical expenses.

Plaintiffs counsel Thomas F. Sacchetta said the verdict was a fair number. Defense counsel John A. Livingood Jr. did not return a call for comment.

Steven Inlander’s insurance carrier tendered the $50,000 policy limit, and U-Haul tendered its $15,000 policy limit pertaining to Inlander. Jill Inlander’s carrier denied that its policy applied. Parola demanded $5 million, the memos said.

The judgment entered June 20 included $1 million for noneconomic damages, $348,000 for past medical expenses and $214,620 for future medical expenses.

Plaintiffs counsel Thomas F. Sacchetta said the verdict was a fair number. Defense counsel John A. Livingood Jr. did not return a call for comment.

Reprinted with permission from the “ISSUE DATE” edition of the “PUBLICATION.” © “2016”
ALM Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited.

A Philadelphia court of common Pleas jury has awarded a SEPTA bus driver $750,000 for noneconomic damages and loss of consortium after a motor vehicle collision with a trash removal truck left him with a traumatic brain injury.

On Oct. 8, with Judge Ellen Ceisler presiding, the jury awarded the plaintiff, Isiah Boyd, $700,000 against defendant Accurate Trash removal. An additional $50,000 was awarded to his wife, Alisha Boyd, on the loss of consortium claim.

Isiah Boyd alleged in his pretrial memorandum that he suffered “serious bodily injury” from a motor vehicle collision on July 31, 2012. Boyd, 45, was “driving in the course and scope of his job” in the westbound lane of Lancaster Avenue in Lower Merion when defendant William Corbitt, the driver of an eastbound trash truck—"in the course and scope of his job"—crossed into the westbound lane of travel and struck the bus.

According to the plaintiff’s memo, Corbitt did not recall what happened during the collision. According to defense papers, Corbitt blacked out before hitting the SEPTA bus. Accurate Trash removal said in its court filings that liability was not contested.

Boyd was taken to the Lankenau Hospital emergency department via ambulance, where he complained of suffering a blow to the head, with associated head and neck injuries, according to the plaintiff’s memo. He also complained of back, left leg and left ankle pain, and “transient amnesia of the events following the accident was noted” at the time.

The next day, Boyd was evaluated at Worknet Occupational Medicine and “was diagnosed with post-concussive syndrome secondary to the motor vehicle accident.” He was referred to a neurologist for treatment and was diagnosed with a mild head injury. The doctor, his employer’s “company doctor,” recommended that the plaintiff not return to work, “due to his unsteadiness.”

In September 2013, Boyd was evaluated by neurologist Michael Martin Cohen, of the Headache & Neurologic center of Philadelphia, who diagnosed the plaintiff with mild traumatic brain injury.

However, prior to the case, a workers' compensation decision said “the plaintiff was fully recovered” and that his claim was “limited to the noneconomic component of his traumatic brain damage,” according to Boyd's pretrial memo.

The defense's expert, neurologist Paul M. Shipkin, of Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, who testified at the workers' compensation hearing, opined that the plaintiff "was fully recovered from all injuries as of an Oct. 25, 2012, examination." The defense also noted, in the pretrial memo, that the plaintiff was "cleared by SEPTA and is working full-time despite his 'permanent condition,'" which was diagnosed by the plaintiff's expert.

Boyd's attorney, Gerald B. Baldino Jr., of Sacchetta and Baldino, said he argued the workers’ compensation judge “only has subject matter over the plaintiff’s ability to work.”

“The position was that this was a traumatic brain injury case,” he said. “He was able to work with his limitations. ... There really wasn’t any medical treatment that was going to cure him. So this was a straight pain and suffering case.”

The plaintiff submitted a demand of $1 million and there were no offers before the trial, according to Boyd's pretrial memorandum.

The verdict was “100 percent for pain and suffering,” Baldino said. According to the court memo, Boyd “had undergone significant personality change as a result of his traumatic brain injury” and “his ability to interact with his wife and physically disabled child was impacted.”

The eight-member jury took two hours to deliberate and the trial lasted three days.

Shari L. Frankfurt of Strachan & Hatzel represented Accurate Trash removal and declined to comment.