Passenger Injury - Rear-Ended Motor Vehicle Accident
Cliff Shapiro and Noah Katz, attorneys with Wingate, Russotti, Shapiro, Moses & Halperin, LLP, reached a settlement in the amount of $1,800,000.00, a year before trial, in a case pending in New York County. After completing depositions, our firm filed a motion for summary judgment, which was granted by the court. The court agreed with our position in spite of the defendants’ argument that one of our clients was the driver who pulled out of a parking spot, and failed to look before striking the truck. We proved that our client had not yet begun to pull out of the parking spot based upon photographs of the scene and damage to the vehicles. As a result of the accident, one client was required to undergo surgery to her neck; the other client had surgery to her shoulder.
The defendants argued that the plaintiffs’ injuries were not caused by the accident, based upon what they believed to be minimal damage to the vehicle; and that their conditions were degenerative and otherwise not significant, since both returned to work shortly after the accident.
In countering the defendants’ arguments, we showed that our clients’ injuries were caused by the garbage truck accident based on medical proof, and in spite of the defendants’ contention that the vehicle damage was minor. In addition, we demonstrated through the medical records, and the opinions of physicians, that both clients had no prior history of pain symptoms to the same body parts; that their injuries were caused by the accident given the size of the truck that struck them and the forces upon their bodies as they sat in their vehicle; and that both were required to return to work in order to support their families but that they continued to work in pain.