Articles

Premises Liability

TREE CRUSHING VERDICT OF $5.9 MILLION

In August of 1999, Norm Hobbie obtained a $5.9 million jury verdict for a package courier who was crushed by a falling tree as he made his rounds by a Monmouth County jury.

The case was bifurcated, and the damages portion was tried first.  The jury returned a verdict of $5 million for M. M. of Point Pleasant, and $900,000 for the loss of consortium claim of his wife.  The case settled for $1.25 million before the liability phase was tried.

Mr. M. was working as an Airborne Express delivery driver on July 26, 1994 when he parked his van on the curb adjacent to 63 Woddhull Associates; a property management company in Freehold.  A 70-foot Norway Maple owned by 63 Woodhull fell on the man, fracturing M. M.'s L-2 vertebrae and two ribs.  Mr M., now 49, had bone graft surgery and a metal rod inserted into his spine.

Mr M. accepted the cash settlement instead of going forward with the liability phase of the trial over.