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Judge upholds nearly $2M verdict in POTHOLE parking lot fall in New Jersey

Last updated: Thursday March 19, 2009, 2:56 PM
BY JOHN PETRICK

A state judge today upheld a $1.9-million jury verdict awarded to a married couple who had sued a West Milford tavern after the wife sustained injuries from falling in a parking lot pothole.

The judge disagreed with arguments from an attorney representing Lakeview Pub and Liquors that the award rose to the level of “shocking the conscience of the court,” as is legally required for a reduction. He also disagreed with the attorney’s assertion that there should be a new trial because a doctor’s expert opinion about plaintiff Dawn Curley’s injuries had insufficient factual basis.

Hackensack attorney Donna Russo had filed a motion on behalf of the pub asking state Superior Court Judge Ralph L. DeLuccia, Jr. in Paterson to either set aside the verdict and set a new trial or find the judgment to be excessive and lower it.

A jury had awarded Dawn and husband Joe Curley a total of $2.15 million earlier this year for pain, suffering and other damages. The jury then set a net total of $1.9 million because it found the bar to be 90-percent liable and Mrs. Curley 10-percent liable in the trip-and-fall incident that occurred on Sept. 4, 2005. Mrs. Curley was 32 at the time of the incident and was 35 at trial, according to attorneys. The couple had recently moved to Dingmans Ferry, Pa., from West Milford when the accident occurred.

DeLuccia today found that during that trial, Mrs. Curley credibly testified as to how her life as a stay-at-home mother was forever altered because of injuries to her back and knees. Four surgeries occurred over about three years, the judge noted, requiring her to sleep in a hospital bed on the first floor of their home. She was inhibited from normal play with her children from the performance of household duties, according to testimony at trial.

Russo had argued that a doctor was vague about just what Mrs. Curley’s injuries were and that while the Curleys were likeable people and very good witnesses, the jury may have acted with emotion. “The woman was very nice, but we don’t award for sympathy,” Russo said. “To give her $1.9 million is just, judge, absolutely shocking.”

Russo said the plaintiff testified at length about the “life-altering events” that occurred as a result of the fall, but that she’s seen worse. “We don’t have a paraplegic, or a wheelchair-bound plaintiff,” she said. “Her life was altered, but it was not the kind of life altering we often see with these kinds of cases.”

Attorney Christopher L. Musmanno of Denville, representing the plaintiffs, maintained Russo took ample advantage of questioning the doctor’s credibility during her cross examination of him at trial. The jury ultimately decided to accept his opinion, anyway, he noted. As for the award being excessive, the attorney said, “The jury had to consider her past, present and future suffering,” he said. “They had a very traditional marriage in that he worked and she took care of the house.”

DeLuccia agreed. “I believe this was someone who was not just looking for a payday,” he said. The judge added that he is convinced if the couple could get back their old life and give back the money, “I don’t have any doubt that they would give it up in a New York Minute. But they can’t. And I won’t.”

E-mail: petrick@northjersey.com