In a damages-only trial, a Middlesex County Superior Court jury returned a $39 million verdict for the pain and suffering of a motorcycle rider who was run over by a drag-racing car in an Edison industrial park six years ago.

According to lawyers in the case and court documents, plaintiff Hussein Agiz was 18 at the time of the accident. Both his bike and the car exploded into balls of fire, said the lawyers who tried his case, Bruce Nagel and Andrew O'Connor of Nagel & Rice in Roseland.

In Agiz's case against the owner of the 10-acre property, the jury deliberated three hours before reaching the $39 million verdict for pain, suffering, impairment and loss of enjoyment of life. The trial before Judge Michael V. Cresitello Jr. took two days, Nagel said.

Agiz's arm was severed in the crash. Soon after, doctors had to remove his leg. He survived 10 additional surgeries to amputate more and more of his arm and leg to save his life. He had so many other injuries that a doctor testified he was “the definition of multiple trauma,” according to a New Jersey Superior Court appellate ruling from last year. He continues to suffer phantom pain from the amputations, but doesn't like to take medication for it because it's not good for him, and isn't helpful, he claimed in the suit.

“He's one of the most inspirational men I've ever met in my life,” Nagel said Thursday. “He's worked to put himself through college. He wants to be an advocate for disabled people. He's an inspiration to everyone who meets him. He's an absolutely extraordinary human being.”

That judgment will be combined with an award of $4.5 million for medical expenses from an eight-day trial two years ago. There, the jury found property owner Heller Industrial Parks Inc. was negligent and proximately caused the accident.

After that trial, Nagel and O'Connor challenged the noneconomic portion of the 2016 verdict—$2.3 million—on the basis that the jury failed to consider some of the judge's instructions regarding calculating the present value of pain and suffering. The judge agreed, and granted a new trial. The defense appealed, but the Appellate Division in May 2018 affirmed and upheld the order for a new trial on noneconomic damages only.

The math is further complicated by the apportionment of the earlier verdict: 60 percent to the drag-racing driver—Jonathan Bonilla, who had no insurance, went to prison and defaulted on the lawsuit—and 40 percent to Heller. Bonilla testified that he never saw Agiz before striking him, documents said.

Nagel said with interest, he expects the final judgment to be about $49 million, with 40 percent—or nearly $20 million—against Heller.

Heller was defended by William Mergner Jr. and David Dering of Leary, Bride, Mergner & Bongiovanni in Cedar Knolls. They didn't return calls seeking comment.

The complaint was originally filed by Steven Haddad of the Haddad Law Firm in Woodbridge, who is listed in the docket as attorney for Agiz.

The suit alleged that after-hours drag racing had been going on for years in the industrial park, with crowds gathering to watch. The park is a 10-acre property with 9 million square feet of warehouses and long, straight public roads. Agiz had gone there to meet other bikers. He was hit when he was driving through the park and two cars came at him from the opposite direction drag racing, the lawyers and documents said.

Lawyers for Agiz alleged the management of the property failed to take security measures that could have broken up the drag racing.

The appeals court judges, in ordering the new trial for noneconomic damages only, remarked on the unusual achievements of a young man so seriously injured.

“He plays sports and even received a golf scholarship for amputees,” the judges noted. “He attends college for biomedical engineering and hopes to make his own prosthetics in the future.”

Nagel said Agiz will soon graduate from Rutgers University with an engineering degree. He said he hopes the verdict will give his client “a small measure of comfort in the future.”