A Cheshire solo practitioner fought back claims from an insurance adjuster, who claimed the plaintiff would have had rotator cuff surgery anyway despite reinjuring his left shoulder in a three-vehicle crash.

Plaintiff counsel Frank Bartlett Jr. overcame that defense argument to secure a $102,000 settlement.

His client, Guy Beaudoin, a 58-year-old Stafford resident, was injured when he stopped for a school bus in Stafford in December 2017. Beaudoin's Subaru Legacy Outback hit a school bus after the Subaru Forester that Eileen Faas-Landry was driving rear-ended it. The impact, Bartlett and the police report said, was so strong that Beaudoin's vehicle was pushed underneath the rear bumper of the school bus.

Faas-Landry was issued an infraction for failure to travel at a safe distance apart. The case was settled with a Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. adjuster and no lawsuit was ever filed.

The adjuster, Bartlett said, tried to argue that Beaudoin was going to have revision surgery anyway on his shoulder, due to a shoulder injury in the workplace in 2007. Therefore, Bartlett said, adjuster Joe Gustavsen maintained any settlement offer for Beaudoin should be minimal.

"They argued that because of the initial rotator cuff repair in his left shoulder 12 years prior, that there was a normal progression for another surgery for ongoing pain," Bartlett said. "We argued that he would not have needed surgery if not for the car accident. We showed that by working with his doctor. That doctor said the need for surgery was associated with this accident as opposed to a normal degeneration following the initial surgery."

Gustavsen did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, and Faas-Landry did not have counsel.

Beaudoin, who incurred $45,000 in medical expenses, also suffered neck and back pain following the car crash, Bartlett said.

The defense's initial offer, Bartlett said, was for $77,000. Bartlett said his initial demand was for $150,000. The case was settled Jan. 14 and Liberty Mutual disbursed the $102,000 on Jan. 17.

A landscaper, Beaudoin missed four weeks of work following his January 2019 surgery, Bartlett said.

Beaudoin, Bartlett said, "had some limited range of motion in his left shoulder following the surgery."

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