Municipal liability cases raise many legal issues. In fact, they are immune from being sued except in limited circumstances. The key to winning these cases is finding a statute that allows a suit, or proving that the town violated a ministerial duty, or that they acted knowing that an identifiable person was in imminent danger. We believe that these are important cases to bring because without accountability services for everyone will suffer. Moreover, the cases we see are often some of the most compelling facts of any case in our office. Here are some recent results in the past 3 years:
14m Verdict Plus Interest. Town dispatcher encourages private mall security to chase young teenage drivers after a minor car accident. The result was a lengthy high speed chase that resulted in the chased car running into a tree. This caused severe brain injuries to a 17 year old boy sleeping in the back of that car. He requires institutional care. Thankfully the town was well insured, and this verdict ensures that state taxpayers are paid back for all the care they have provided to the plaintiff since this accident. It also sends a clear message that dispatchers have a very important responsibility to bring stability and calm to chaotic scenes, not to escalate them to the point where people are grievously harmed. This was the testimony of our dispatch expert who spent decades teaching dispatchers the right way to do their job.
3m Verdict Plus Interest. A muncipal water company erected an unpainted unwarned of steel rod across a operational bike path on its property “to keep cars off the path”. A very experienced biker broke her neck on the steel rod when she could not stop in time to avoid it. Her helmet saved her life but she still has extremely limited range of motion and severe nerve damage. This case caused the defendant to start a rabid and distorted public relations campaign against our client post-verdict. They actually put out bumper stickers showing a hillbilly riding his bike into a bright yellow gate. The public became incensed with the verdict even though the facts as heard by the jury were quite different. It was not a gate. It was a thin rod. It was not painted yellow. It had no warnings, and the bike lane markings on the path actually went right into the rod! It was “Hot Coffee” redux.
2.5m Settlement. Town police officers were called to the scene of a flooded underpass during a storm. They saw that a car was stuck in the water. Instead of closing down the road or providing even cones for warning, the officers left the scene unprotected. A mother of two on her way to work the midnight shift drove into the underpass, became stuck in her car, and drowned.
