How Attorneys Won Federal Jury Verdict for Bicyclist Traveling Against Traffic
A federal jury in Boston has awarded $150,000 to Connecticut resident Leslie Freeman, who was injured when a pickup truck struck the bicycle she was riding. There will be no appeals.
November 06, 2019 at 05:09 PM
3 minute read
A federal jury in Boston has awarded $150,000 to a 57-year-old Connecticut woman who was injured when a pickup truck struck her leg while she was bicycling in Provincetown in July 2016.
In a case that partially hinged on a local regulation that allowed for bike traffic to travel against vehicle traffic on a one-way thoroughfare in the Massachusetts resort town, the plaintiff's side was able to prevail.
"That regulation saved us in terms of liability," said plaintiff attorney Christopher Houlihan, an associate with Hartford-based RisCassi & Davis. "Overcoming that my client was negligent in some way by pressing against traffic was our biggest hurdle. The defense acknowledged the regulation, but said just because it was allowed it was not something you should do."
Hamden resident Leslie Freeman was on vacation in Boston, and riding her bicycle against traffic on Commercial Street when Hannah Preston's pickup truck struck her left leg, Houlihan told the Connecticut Law Tribune Wednesday.
Preston, according to the January 2018 lawsuit, continued driving because she did not think she struck anyone. She was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, but the charge was later dismissed.
Freeman had lumbar spine surgery in May 2019, her lawyer said.
The defense, Houlihan said, tried to argue that the delay in getting surgery—almost three years after the accident—proved there was not a causation between the accident and the surgery. But Houlihan countered, "Over that three-year period, my client did everything she could as far as conservative treatment to avoid surgery."
The eight-person jury deliberated for about two and a half hours before rendering its verdict, after a four-day trial that Houlihan said came down to the dueling testimony of doctors.
The defense expert, neurosurgeon Dr. Michael DiTullio Jr., told the jury that Freeman had a preexisting degenerative condition related to her lumbar spine that was causing the pain. But the plaintiff's side said the accident forced a nerve in the lumbar spine to be compressed, which caused pain, numbness, tingling and burning down her left leg and into her left foot.
Houlihan believes the jury found the plaintiff's witness, Dr. Khalid Abbed of the Yale New Haven Hospital Spine Center, to be most credible.
"Dr. Abbed's testimony, in effect, was that he did not see anything in the plaintiff's prior treatment records that led him to believe she had any history with the lumbar nerves prior to the accident," Houlihan said. "I believe that Dr. Abbed's testimony was invaluable in proving our case and dissuading the jury from believing what Dr. DiTullio said."
Preston's attorney, James Manitsas of Murphy & Manitsas in Springfield, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Houlihan said both sides agreed not to appeal the jury verdict.
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