Confidential
Settlement – $477,500Judge
Court
L.A. Superior Torrance
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Ronald P. Ackerman
(Law Offices of Ronald P. Ackerman)
Defendant
Dennis Neil Jones
(Myers, Widders, Gibson, Jones & Feingold LLP)
Facts
On Feb. 18, 1995, the plaintiff gardener, a 30-year-old self-employed gardener, was a customer in the defendant bar when he was shot twice by the defendant armed security guard at the defendant bar in Inglewood. The plaintiff gardener claimed he was drunk and did not remember the details leading up to the incident, but that witnesses stated that he was unarmed and did not start any altercation before being shot. The defendant security guard claimed the plaintiff gardener was drunk, carousing and had a broken beer bottle in his hand, and that he and two friends were threatening the guard with the broken bottle when the guard shot the plaintiff. The plaintiff gardener was shot in the head and the leg. The plaintiff homemaker was sitting in the bar at the time of the shooting and was hit by a bullet fragment which lodged in her thigh and had to be surgically removed. The plaintiffs brought this action against the defendants based on an excessive force of recovery.
Settlement Discussions
The plaintiff made a C.C.P. º998 settlement demand for $1 million for the plaintiff gardener, reduced to $525,000, and a settlement demand for $30,000 for the plaintiff homemaker. The defendant made a C.C.P. º998 offer of compromise for $400,000 for the plaintiff gardener and $8,001 for the plaintiff homemaker.
Specials in Evidence
$133,641 (plaintiff gardener, per the plaintiff) or $143,000 (per the defendants); $3,600 (plaintiff homemaker) $30,000 (plaintiff gardener) $400,000 (plaintiff gardener) $45,000 (plaintiff gardener)
Damages
The defendants claimed that future lost wages should be based on wages in Mexico because the plaintiff garderner was an undocumented alien.
Injuries
The plaintiff gardener claimed he sustained permanent nerve damage to his leg, resulting in a foot drop, permanent partial loss of eyesight and brain damage, resulting in cognitive impairment.
Other Information
The settlement was reached approximately one year and nine months after the case was filed. A mediation was held before Judge Jack Tenner, retired, of ARC. It did not resolve the matter.
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