A $2.15 million settlement was reached on Dec. 2 in Hudson County in the case of an elevator worker who was killed on the job, Estate of Camper v. Quality Elevator Products Inc.

On Feb. 2, 2016, Selwyn Camper, 44, was working as an elevator mechanic at Galaxy Towers on John F. Kennedy Boulevard in Guttenberg. He was working on an elevator car in tower No. 2 of the property as part of an annual inspection, according to court documents.

Camper was working from the top of the elevator car, riding and stopping to inspect door locks at each level of the building. The top of the car was fitted with a "run box" allowing a mechanic to control and operate it in order to perform maintenance tasks, according to the plaintiffs' counsel, Edward Capozzi and Corey Dietz of Brach Eichler in Roseland.

While Camper was stopped and working at one floor, the elevator car began moving, and he became caught between the seventh and eighth floors, between the elevator door and the elevator car, and was in conscious pain for a time as police responded to the building, according to the documents and counsel. Camper was freed but died at the scene from his injuries.

The plaintiffs claimed that the run box was improperly designed because a switch allowing for the elevator car to be toggled between maintenance mode and normal operation mode lacked a necessary guard or safety feature to prevent inadvertent activation. The suit alleged that Camper inadvertently moved the switch from maintenance mode to normal mode, causing the car to respond to an elevator call from above, and to begin moving. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated, and there was no record of a power surge with PSE&G that might have caused the car to begin moving, Dietz noted.

Quality Elevator Products Inc., based in Niles, Illinois, which manufactured the run box, was named a defendant. The company denied fault in Camper's death, according to the documents.

The defense, according to Dietz, contended that Camper was negligent in how he was operating the elevator car, including by failing to activate safety features from the elevator control room before beginning work atop the elevator car.

Claims against the elevator car's manufacturer and Camper's employer were withdrawn, and only Quality Elevator remained in the case when the parties settled on Dec. 2, during mediation with Mark Epstein, a retired Superior Court judge with Hoagland, Longo, Moran, Dunst & Doukas in New Brunswick. Quality Elevator agreed to pay a total of $2.15 million, Dietz said.

The case was dismissed as settled on Dec. 5, according to the documents.

Counsel for Quality Elevator, Christopher Mavros of Zarwin Baum DeVito Kaplan Schaer Toddy in Philadelphia, didn't respond to a call and email about the case.

— David Gialanella

$550K Med Mal Verdict in Morris

Scott v. Goldberger: A woman who developed blood clots after ankle surgery was awarded $550,000 by a Morris County jury on Oct. 25.

According to counsel and court documents, plaintiff Candace Scott underwent surgery to repair the peroneal tendon in her left ankle on Oct. 14, 2013. The outpatient procedure was conducted by Dr. Michael Goldberger of Tri-County Orthopedics in Cedar Knolls. After the surgery, Scott, who was 69 at the time, went to Goldberger for several follow-up visits, first complaining that the cast on her lower leg was too tight, and later, that her ankle was significantly swollen, said her lawyer, Susan Connors of Nagel Rice in Roseland.

About a month after the surgery, Scott was found to have blood clots ranging from her left foot up to her abdomen, and she underwent emergency surgery, including implantation of stents to help with blood flow, Connors said.

Scott's civil suit, filed in 2016, claimed that Goldberger deviated from the standard of care by failing to detect the blood clots sooner, including by his failure to perform a noninvasive ultrasound of the left lower leg using a Doppler wand.

The defense, according to Connors, contended that Goldberger didn't deviate from the standard of care, and reasonably treated Scott's complaints of cast tightness by adjusting her cast during her post-surgical visits.

After an eight-day trial before Morris County Superior Court Judge W. Hunt Dumont—including two days of jury selection, and jury deliberation that spanned two days—the seven-member panel unanimously found in Scott's favor on liability and causation, and awarded $550,000. That sum included $500,000 on Scott's claims of pain and suffering, and $50,000 on Scott's husband's per quod claim, Connors said. The jury, again unanimously, found in Goldberger's favor on Scott's claim of failure to supervise a physician's assistant.

Robert Evers of Marhsall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin in Roseland represented  the defendants. Reached by phone, he declined to comment on the verdict.

In April 2017, Scott made an offer of judgment in the amount of $350,000, according to court documents, and following a verdict in an amount greater than 120% of that sum, now is seeking attorney fees and costs, according to court documents. Connors noted that her firm is seeking more than $200,000 in fees and costs.

Scott is a retired family law attorney who now lives in Tennessee, Connors noted.

— David Gialanella