Superior Court Jury Returns Verdict for 2 Men Injured in Hit-and-Run Crash
A Superior Court jury Friday awarded $239,000 to two Philadelphia men who were injured in a car smashup in West Haven in 2015; there will be no appeal.
October 24, 2019 at 12:55 PM
4 minute read
A New Haven Superior Court jury has awarded $239,000 to two men who were injured after a motorist struck their car and then fled the scene.
The six-person jury deliberated for three hours before rendering its verdict Friday afternoon.
Plaintiffs Jeffrey Frazier and Nicola Jandreau sued Safeco Insurance Co. of Illinois and Ramona Colon after a vehicle Colon once owned T-boned a vehicle that Frazier was driving in 2015 in West Haven. Jandreau was a passenger in Frazier's vehicle, which struck another vehicle and also flipped over. The driver of the vehicle that struck Frazier's car got out of the vehicle and took off after the accident, according to Alex Guziak, the Glastonbury-based attorney for Frazier and Jandreau.
Safeco was Frazier's insurance carrier.
Guziak, an associate with Weber & Rubano, told the Connecticut Law Tribune Thursday that Colon told investigators she sold the vehicle three months before the accident. It was never determined who was driving the car, Guziak said.
After hearing testimony from the two plaintiffs and two doctors, the jury, which heard testimony for three days, ended up awarding $101,000 to Frazier and $138,000 to Jandreau. Representing the defense was Paige Duprey of Wallingford-based Meehan, Roberts, Turret & Rosenbaum. Duprey did not respond to a request for comment, but will not be appealing the verdict, according to Guziak, who said the check was delivered Wednesday.
Guziak said both plaintiffs testified during trial.
"They were both excellent on the stand," he said. "They went through what happened to them, their treatments and their pain, and how this has impacted their lives not just physically but also psychologically."
Frazier sustained lower and upper back injuries. He also suffers from neck pain, Guziak said. Jandreau had neck injuries after the roof of the car caved in on him, Guziak said.
Also testifying for the plaintiffs' side was Michael Connair, a North Haven-based orthopedic surgeon. Connair, Guziak said, told jurors about how he oversaw the treatment of both plaintiffs. "He ended up explaining how the accident occurred," Guziak said. "He explained that, while these were soft-tissue injuries, you'd expect variable pain levels. There would be a period of no pain and periods of intense pain. He was very convincing."
The defense called one witness: Bloomfield-based orthopedic surgeon Scott Bissell, who testified via video.
"Dr. Bissell reviewed my clients' records, but he had not physically examined them," Guziak said. "Dr. Bissell did not even know that my client's car had flipped over until the day of the deposition. He wasn't as familiar with the case as he should have been. I do think that weighed on the jury."
Guziak said Bissell testified that Frazier and Jandreau were overtreated.
Guziak said neither Frazier or Jandreau, both Philadelphia residents, were present when the jury announced its verdict.
"They both started crying when I told them the verdict," he said. "They were both very happy."
The defense, in court papers, never questioned the injuries the two plaintiffs sustained. Rather, it argued that the plaintiffs were limited to $300,000 per person via the Safeco policy for uninsured and underinsured motorists.
Assisting Guziak on the case were his colleagues Christopher Shea, Stephen Haas, Robert Weber and Louis Rubano.
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