Oliver's Supermarket on Waterbury Road in Prospect. Photo: Google

The estate of a 90-year-old woman who died three months after being hit by a car in a Prospect supermarket parking lot will receive $1.15 million via a negotiated settlement.

Louise Tigano of Prospect was walking from her parked car toward Oliver's Supermarket when she was struck by a vehicle driven by Sandra Miguez-Fernandes, who in an apparent panic then backed up, driving over Tigano's legs. An Aug. 23 amended lawsuit claimed negligence and recklessness on the part of Miguez-Fernandes.

"The negligence and carelessness of Sandra Miguez-Fernandes' operation of her vehicle in causing it to hit and run over Ms. Tigano caused severe personal injuries to the plaintiff's decedent, Louise Tigano, which resulted in her death on May 29, 2019," the lawsuit stated, claiming Miguez-Fernandes had been driving inattentively, not using her brakes properly, failing to sound her horn, traveling at an unreasonable speed and failing to take corrective measures. Miguez-Fernandes was ticketed for a moving violation.

Thomas Pettinicchi, co-owner of Watertown-based D'Amico & Pettinicchi said the biggest challenge he faced was impressing on insurance company Progressive Corp. the value of Tigano's life and future.

"The biggest obstacle we had was that the insurance company was not valuing this 90-year-old woman adequately," Pettinicchi said. "It was a fight over value. The company was willing to offer some amount of money, but it was not enough to compensate her for the loss of life."

Pettinicchi said Progressive initially offered $250,000 and then increased the amount to $750,000.

"The insurance company's message, that I was reading, was they were questioning how much life did she really have left," said Pettinicchi, who noted he pushed back "by talking to the woman's three children and getting a picture of her life and convincing the other side that this was an active 90-year-old woman who drove, volunteered her time for various organizations and would take friends who could not drive grocery shopping. She had a bit of quality of life left in her."

Pettinicchi also said a supermarket surveillance video became a key piece of material in support of his case.  "When you watch it, you cringe," Pettinicchi said. "The store was very cooperative in getting the right technician to download the video onto a thumb drive so we could have it as evidence."

Tigano suffered severe injuries to her lower extremities, including an open ankle fracture, and multiple rib fractures, Pettinicchi said.

"She passed away because she was stationary and not mobile. She was laid up in bed in a nursing home. Her orthopedic injuries had her laid up in the nursing home and she developed a urinary tract infection and other medical problems," Pettinicchi said. "She died because of her injuries."

Representing Progressive and Miguez-Fernandes was Lewis Lerman with Halloran Sage, who was not immediately available for comment at press time.

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