Jury Awards $110M to Bicyclist Whose Spinal Cord Was Severed by 10-Foot Railroad Tie
The all-female jury awarded paraplegic Robert Liciaga more than $110 million, one of the highest awards his attorneys could find on record. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is calling the verdict "grossly excessive."
April 10, 2019 at 04:58 PM
3 minute read
A jury on Tuesday awarded just over $110 million to a 26-year-old paraplegic whose spinal cord was shattered by a 10-foot rail tie dislodged during a New York City Transit Authority track replacement project in Brooklyn.
The transit authority was found to be 100 percent liable for Robert Liciaga's injuries, which occurred three years ago today as he was riding a bicycle to a video game store in the Bushwick section, said his attorney, Scott Occhiogrosso, a partner at Block O'Toole & Murphy.
The transit authority was represented by the Syosset firm of Chesney, Nicholas, & Brower in Liciaga v. NYCTA, 513495, which was filed in 2016. While the firm did not respond to a request for comment, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chief External Affairs Officer Maxwell Young issued a statement on the transit authority's behalf.
“This verdict is grossly excessive and we intend to pursue all avenues of appeal, in addition to asking the trial court to reduce the award,” he said.
Occhiogrosso and co-counsel Daniel O'Toole, a partner at Block O'Toole, offered the testimony of two expert witnesses who said that it would cost $40 million to care for Liciaga at a nursing facility for the rest of his life. The figure also accounts for the cost of medicine and rehabilitation.
The verdict included $60 million for pain and suffering and about $10 million for Liciaga's medical expenses over the past three years. The all-female jury gave the plaintiff almost exactly what his attorneys demanded. The attorneys believe it is one of the highest verdicts on record involving one plaintiff.
The plaintiff testified that he was told by a construction worker that it was safe to proceed west on Broadway under the elevated J and M where the track was being removed. He was unable to testify as to what happened next because he doesn't remember.
“His next conscious moment is that he's never going to walk again, he's never going to have bowel function again, he's never going to have bladder function again, he's never going to have sexual function again. And he's waking up to this and he's 23 years old,” Occhiogrosso said.
Occhiogrosso told the jury that he believed that as the barricades extended farther into the middle of busy Broadway, Liciaga felt safer riding to the right than to the left of them. He was able to do this because there was a 12-foot gap to make room for a payloader to clean up the railroad ties that were being dropped onto the street, Occhiogrosso said.
“There should have been a barricade line or wall directly in front of Robert so he would have no choice but go to his left and share the road,” his attorney said.
Liciaga's attorneys also argued that the area under the construction project should have been completely off-limits to bicyclists and pedestrians. If there had to be a gap, a guard should have been stationed there, Occhiogrosso said.
Kings County Supreme Court Justice Peter Sweeney informed the transit authority Tuesday that it has 60 days to move to set aside or reduce the $110,174,972.38 verdict.
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