Confidential
Settlement – $325,500Court
L.A. Superior Torrance
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Michael R. Rhames
(Law Offices of Michael R. Rhames PC)
Defendant
Experts
Plaintiff
Thomas K. Donaldson
(medical)
Harold L. Segal
(medical)
Ted Vavoulis
(technical)
Mason Hohl
(medical)
Stephen C. Wexler
(technical)
Defendant
Keith E. Liberman M.D.
(medical)
Facts
On Sept. 20, 1993, the plaintiff, a 47-year-old male electrician, was standing in the "basket" attached to the telescoping boom of a self-propelled "boom lift" as he worked on the exterior wall of a building located on a transportation related construction project in Hawthorne. The telescoping boom extended across two sets of incomplete rail tracks. While situated in this position, a dump truck loaded with ballast material, operated by employees of one of the defendant general contractors, approached the extended boom, traveling backwards, and collided with the boom. The railing of the "basket" in which the plaintiff was standing struck his right hip causing a communited fracture. The drill motor being used by the plaintiff at the time was jarred such that the drill bit puntured his right thigh. The plaintiff was thrown completely out of the basket and was falling to the ground when he was brought to a sudden stop at the end of his "safety rope." The plaintiff was then lowered to the ground by fellow workers, detached from the "basket" and transported to the hospital. The plaintiff brought this action against the two general contractors, the construction manager and a subcontractor based on negligence and respondeat superior theories of recovery.
Settlement Discussions
The plaintiff made a settlement demand for $300,000. The defendants made a joint C.C.P. º998 offer of compromise for $190,000 raised to $262,000 "new money."
Specials in Evidence
$12,541 $15,465 $473,8000 $100,000
Injuries
The plaintiff alleged he sustained a comminuted fracture of the right ilium which healed in a non-anatomical alignment, leaving a "bump" that impaired the plaintiff's range of motion of his right leg. The plaintiff also sustained substantial bruising and echimosis of the entire hip and low-back region, as well as a puncture wound to the right thigh and a torn right lateral meniscus. The plaintiff claimed his doctors indicated that there was a reasonable medical probability that the plaintiff would require at least one total knee replacement as a result of the injury to the right knee. The defendants contended that the plaintiff sustained no injury to his low back, that the restricted range of motion of the right hip was negligible and that there would not be a need for a total knee replacement of the plaintiff's right knee.
Other Information
The settlement was reached approximately two years and seven months after the case was filed. A mediation was held on Feb. 10, 1997 before a mediator affiliated with JAMS/Endispute. It did not resolve the matter. Per the plaintiff, the defendants purchased the $60,000 workers' compensation lien for approximately $30,000.
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