Trial Over Accident Caused by Dislodged Wheel Nets $2.71 Million Recovery

In Laul v. Instant Air Heating & Cooling, a Middlesex County jury awarded $2.6 million on Dec. 9 to a man who suffered a neck injury when his pickup truck was hit by a wheel that came loose from another vehicle.

The parties agreed before trial to mold the verdict by $109,673 for past medical expenses, which increases the recover to $2.71 million, said Kevin Parsons of Hanus & Parsons in Middletown, the lawyer for plaintiff Brian Laul Sr.

Laul was driving north on the Garden State Parkway in Kenilworth on Oct. 12, 2017, when a wheel fell off a southbound vehicle and struck the right front corner of his truck, causing significant damage. Laul managed to bring the vehicle to a stop without colliding with any other vehicles, said Parsons. Laul saw the tire coming towards him and, thinking it might hit the windshield, ducked down in the direction of the passenger side. Laul’s head was struck by the passenger-side airbag, causing a neck injury, Parsons said.

The wheel came from a southbound vehicle driven by Jaime Dedios and owned by his employer, Instant Air Heating and Cooling, Parsons said. It was unclear why the wheel detached from the vehicle, he said.

After the crash, Laul went to an emergency room with complaints of neck and left shoulder pain. For several months after the crash, he was treated for the shoulder, Parsons said. After a shoulder MRI appeared normal, Laul’s doctors suspected his complaints were coming from his neck and not his shoulder. After a cervical spine MRI showed a herniated disc at C5-C6, he underwent a cervical fusion.

Laul’s medical experts testified that while initially his shoulder injury was investigated as the source of his complaints, which include left arm weakness and numbness of the left hand, because the left shoulder MRI was negative for traumatic pathology, and the cervical spine MRI revealed a C5-C6 herniation pressing on the spinal cord, Laul did not suffer any significant left shoulder injury as a result of the October 2017 crash.

Laul was in another vehicle collision in 2012 and had a third crash in December 2017, when he rear-ended another vehicle and suffered broken nose, Parsons said.

Much of the evidence produced by Laul at trial was on the issue of causation, according to Parsons. In challenging Laul’s claims, the defendants pointed to one doctor’s testimony in a previous case that a “significant” number of patients who undergo cervical discectomy and fusion will experience “adjacent level disease” above and below the fusion, requiring an eventual extension of the fusion to these levels. The defendants argued that the reason for the C5-6 disc herniation was not the Oct. 12, 2017, collision, but rather the adjacent-level disease and the progression of preexisting degeneration at that level. The defendants also noted that for several months after the October 2017 collision, the sole focus of Laul’s medical treatment was to the left shoulder, not the neck. Finally, the defendants pointed to the Dec. 4, 2017, subsequent motor vehicle collision where the plaintiff was rear-ended by a truck.

Lawyers for Instant Air and Dedios argued that after the October 2017 crash, Laul did not wear a cervical collar, or receive a cervical spine X-ray or CT Scan, according to Parsons. Defense lawyers also argued that it was not until after the subsequent, December 2017 crash that Laul’s treatment switched to the cervical spine.

Laul, 49, a construction laborer, has returned to work but experiences significant pain and discomfort, the suit claimed. He also has significant difficulties with personal care and home maintenance, and must begin each day with a long, hot shower in order to loosen up, Parsons said.

After a trial before Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Aravind Aithal, the jury found by a 7-1 vote that Laul’s medical bills were causally related to the October 2017 crash, and by an 8-0 vote awarded $2.6 million for past and future pain, suffering, disability and loss of enjoyment of life.

Laul in March 2020 had filed an offer to take judgment for $475,000, within the available coverage of $500,000, but the defendants did not respond, Parsons said. The defendants then rejected a non-binding arbitrtion award of $350,000, he said. Several months before trial, the defendants offered $35,000, Parsons said.

He added that he intends to prosecute a claim against State Farm for bad faith in failing to participate in settlement negotiations before the verdict.

Mario Delano of Campbell, Foley, Delano & Adams in Wall, who represented Instant Air and Dedios, did not respond to a request for comment. He moved for a new trial on Dec. 29, 2022.

— Charles Toutant

$750,000 For Hot Water Burn

Lopez v. Waite Avenue Apartments LLC: A building superintendent settled for $750,000 in a pretrial settlement conference on Oct. 27, 2022, for an injury he sustained while assessing a hot water heater, which caused third-degree burns.

On Sept. 8, 2019, plaintiff Ludwin Lopez responded to an emergency call made by a tenant at Waite Avenue Apartments who complained there was no hot water. The apartments, located on West Grande Avenue in Rahway, are a multi-dwelling property where Lopez worked as the superintendent. While assessing the hot water heater, water discharged into Lopez’s left boot causing the burns, which required hospitalization and debridement surgeries, according to counsel to Lopez, Walter Dana Venneman of Gill & Chamas in Woodbridge.

Lopez sustained permanent injuries including scarring, loss of tissue, and nerve damage, and now has difficulty standing for long periods of time caused by reduced strength and flexibility, the suit claimed. The liability expert for the plaintiff stated that the property owner allowed a hazardous condition by setting the hot water heaters to temperatures of between 140 and 160 degrees—40 degrees higher than applicable codes allowed on the unit in question, Venneman said.

The apartment complex was owned by the same company that employed Lopez, which led the defense to contend that the owner was protected from liability by the workers’ compensation bar. The defense also alleged that the cited building codes did not apply, and that the plaintiff’s own negligence was the proximate cause of his injury. The defense retained an expert who asserted that Lopez was actually injured when he his motorcycle fell on him after the the burns occurred, Venneman said. The plaintiff’s burn expert rejected that contention, he said.

The $750,000 settlement was reached last Oct. 27 before Judge Bruce J. Kaplan in Middlesex County Superior Court.

“Judge Kaplan did a good job and was very understanding of the legal issues,” Venneman said. “It did resolve for more than the arbitration award, and I was pleased.”

He added that defense counsel “was very diligent and very aggressive in his defense, and it was three years of getting to this outcome.” said Venneman. ”I do wish it were more money because the injuries are very severe.

“This settlement was a the adjusted risk for both parties, but it is really hard to say what the jury would have done,” added Venneman, noting that, for his client, the injury “is going to significantly impact his employment going forward.”

Counsel to Waite Avenue Apartments, Michael T. Kearns of Hoaglund, Longo, Moran, Dunst & Doukas in New Brunswick, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the case.

— Colleen Murphy