Facts

Plaintiff Mayra Carillo, 29, slipped and fell on drops of oil on the floor at Defendant's supermarket in North Hills. The bottle of oil had been dropped by Defendant's employee within seconds before the accident. As a result, Plaintiff claimed to have injured her lower back (herniated disc with foraminal compromise) resulting in lower back pain with radiation down the left lower extremity and incurred $110,000 in medical bills with recommendation for future back surgery at an anticipated cost of $160,000.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Plaintiff claimed that Defendant was negligent and that said negligence was the proximate cause of her injuries. Plaintiff alleged constant low back pain with radiation down the left leg. She had a disc bulge at L5-S1 with an annular tear. Dr. Mobin testified that Plaintiff's disc was damaged resulting in foraminal compromise and nerve root impingement. Because of constant pain, she was a candidate for lumbar discectomy and fixation with hardware at a cost of $160,000. All conservative treatment had failed making surgery the only option.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
Defendant claimed that Plaintiff suffered nothing more than soft tissue contusions to her low back and that her treatment was excessive and unnecessary and incurred on a lien basis in order to inflate the value of the case. Defendant also claimed that Plaintiff was not a candidate for future surgery and that her left side radicular complaints were inconsistent with the degenerative right-side findings on her MRIs.

Settlement Discussions

Plaintiff demanded $250,000. Pretrial, defendant offered $40,000.

Specials in Evidence

$110,000 $160,000

Injuries

Claim of L5-S1 disc injury that collapsed the neural foraminal opening resulting in nerve root compression at L5.

Result

Jury found that defendant was negligent but that said negligence was not a substantial factor in bringing about plaintiff's alleged injuries.

Other Information

Dr. Mobin was impeached on multiple issues including differences between his report based on one MRI and his deposition based on subsequent MRI even though he acknowledged both MRIs were the same. FILING DATE: Oct. 26, 2010.

Deliberation

six hours

Length

seven days