Rose Makwana and Jitendra Makwana v. Terry Mason
Published: Jan. 1, 2000 | Result Date: Jun. 10, 1999 | Filing Date: Jan. 1, 1900 |Case number: CV9709688 Arbitration – $1,100,000
Judge
Court
Maricopa Superior
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
Experts
Plaintiff
Janet Falgout
(medical)
Glen Wilt
(technical)
Vincent Russo
(medical)
Skip Heck
(medical)
Saundra Butterbaugh
(technical)
Oscar Gluck
(medical)
Lisa Weinrib
(medical)
Steve Fanto
(medical)
Defendant
Edward Lucero
(medical)
James R. Maxwell
(Rogers Joseph & O'Donnell)
(medical)
Zoran Maric
(medical)
Facts
On June 17, 1995, plaintiff Rose Makwana, a 29-year-old Motorola engineer who weighed approximately 90 pounds, was standing on the sidewalk in front of her house when she was knocked down by a mixed-breed Labrador retriever owned by defendant Terry Mason, her neighbor. The dog knocked her to the sidewalk, where she landed on her coccyx. During the summer of 1995, the plaintiff wife's lower back pain spread up her spinal column, into her shoulders, and became generally diffuse. The plaintiff wife also experienced periodic numbness and tingling in her arms and legs. In 1996, she consulted four orthopedic doctors, three of whom diagnosed chronic pain of unknown etiology. The fourth, James Maxwell, M.D., diagnosed type II spondilolysthesis, a pre-existing condition that exhibited no symptoms before becoming exacerbated by the accident. In July 1996, the plaintiff wife was diagnosed with traumatically-induced fibromyalgia. From the spring of 1996 to July 1996 she worked only part time. From July 1996 to September 1997, the plaintiff wife was on full-time leave from employment. She returned to part-time work from September 1997 to June 1998, when she again took full-time leave. The plaintiffs, Rose Makwana and her husband, brought this action against their neighbor based on negligence and loss of consortium theories of recovery.
Settlement Discussions
In March 1998, the plaintiff made a Rule 68 Offer of Judgment for $750,000 ($675,000 to the plaintiff wife and $75,000 to her husband). The defendant made a settlement offer of $50,000.
Specials in Evidence
$48,000 $2.2 to $2.6 million Unknown
Damages
The plaintiffs asked the arbitration panel for an award of $3.5 million. The defendant asked that the plaintiff be awarded no more than $20,000 to $30,000.
Injuries
The plaintiff claimed the accident caused her to develop traumatically-induced fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition with no known cure. The plaintiff claimed that the pain of fibromyalgia interferes with restorative sleep, which in turn interferes with cognitive abilities. The plaintiff also claimed that her fibromyalgia was not expected to go into remission.
Result
PLEASE PROVIDE THE CITY OF LOCALE OF EXPERTS: Lisa Weinrib ___________________, Steve Fanto _______________, Vincent Russo _______________, Janet Falgout ___________________, Oscar Gluck ______________, Glen Wilt ______________, Skip Heck __________________, Saundra Butterbaugh ______________________, Zoran Maric _________________, James Maxwell ___________________, Edward Lucero _______________
Other Information
The award was reached approximately two years after the case was filed. The binding arbitration was held on June 9-10, 1999, before attorneys David Damron of Teilborg, Sanders & Parks, Stephen Scott, of Gallagher & Kennedy, and Michael Wright, of Solomon, Relihan & Blake The case was originally assigned to Hon. Brian Hauser. Two weeks before the scheduled jury trial, the parties stipulated to a binding arbitration with a high-low of $1.2 million/$50,000. During closing arguments, the plaintiffs' counsel noted that there was no evidence to show any other cause of the plaintiff wife's condition; no evidence to show that she was not disabled, only that the orthopedists could not find what was wrong with her; and essentially no defense evidence, only the argument that it was not causally-related. EXPERT TESTIMONY: The defendant retained Oscar Gluck, M.D., a board-certified rheumatologist who performed a medical exam on the plaintiff wife. Dr. Gluck testified, in deposition, that the plaintiff wife had fibromyalgia symptoms eight to twelve weeks after the accident, and that fibromyalgia can be trauma-induced. In trial, the plaintiffs presented Dr. Gluck's testimony. Edward Lucero, M.D., one of the orthopedic doctors who examined plaintiff was called by defendant and testified at trial that there was nothing orthopedically wrong with the plaintiff wife, and that she should have been able to return to work in July 1996. Dr. Lucero also testified that the plaintiff wife's symptoms should have resolved in two to three months after the accident.
Length
1½ days
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