Ramaker v. Homebase
Published: Aug. 9, 1997 | Result Date: Jul. 14, 1997 | Filing Date: Jan. 1, 1900 |Case number: BC132735 Verdict – $125,000
Judge
Court
L.A. Superior Central
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
Experts
Plaintiff
Edward Carden
(medical)
Defendant
Irwin L. Bliss M.D.
(medical)
Facts
On June 17, 1995, plaintiff Sara E. Ramaker, a 24-year-old talent agent, was standing at defendant Homebase's merchandise return counter in order to return merchandise. While the plaintiff was at the counter, a load of six 10-foot long plumbing pipes, which had been left lying unsecured atop a wire basket shopping cart rolled off the cart and landed on the plaintiff's left foot and ankle. The plaintiff brought this action against the defendants based on premises liability, negligence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress theories of recovery.
Settlement Discussions
The plaintiff made a settlement demand for $600,000. The defendants made a C.C.P. º998 offer of compromise for $85,000.
Specials in Evidence
$31,000 $130,000
Injuries
The plaintiff sustained a crush injury to the left foot resulting in reflex sympathetic dystrophy, requiring a series of approximately 30 epidural and regional nerve block injections, requiring a cast and crutches.
Other Information
The verdict was reached approximately one year and 11 months after the case was filed. An arbitration was held on Nov. 26, 1996 before Judge Robert Einstein, retired, resulting in an award of $175,000. The defendants requested a trial de novo. EXPERT TESTIMONY: The plaintiff's medical expert, who was also her treating physician, stated that the plaintiff's condition was worsening and spreading, and that she would require three regional nerve block injections each month for the next three years in an effort to cure the disease. The plaintiff's expert opined that, based on his familiarity with the disease, this course of treatment was 70 percent likely to resolve the plaintiff's ongoing reflex sympathetic dystrophy. He further testified there was a 30 percent chance that the plaintiff would not recover, and that she would then require the implant of a spinal cord stimulator, or a morphine pump, and may be continued to a wheelchair. The defense medical expert, Irwin Bliss, M.D., an orthopedist, stated in his IME report that the plaintiff had been treated "agressively and appropriately" for Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy and that she had the potential for subsequent problems. At trial, Dr. Bliss retreated from this original conclusion, stating that his original conclusion was a "soft" diagnosis, although he had included no such notations in his IME Report of April 5, 1996.
Deliberation
4 hours
Poll
12-0
Length
4 days
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