HowardPopper.com

Suits & Deals

New Jersey Law Journal
February 18, 2011

$1M for Property Liability

Hartley v. Bevere: A woman who slipped and fell on icy steps in front of her rental house settled her Sussex County suit for $1 million on Jan. 21. Maureen Hartley sued her landlord, James Bevere of Sussex, who was required under the lease to keep walkways clear. Bevere contended that Hartley could have taken a different route leaving her home and shared in liability for walking on visibly icy steps, says her attorney, Howard Popper. Hartley fractured and dislocated her coccyx and damaged her rectum in the Dec. 16, 2005, fall. After undergoing surgery, she was left with fecal incontinence and constant pain and, now 38, is expected to require a colostomy, says Popper, a Morristown solo. The parties settled for the property owner's $1 million policy limit. The defendant's attorney, Joseph Skinner of Daly, Lamastra & Cunningham in Warren, did not return a call.
— By Charles Toutant

Suits & Deals

New Jersey Law Journal
February 18, 2011

$2M in Dram-Shop Suit

Birchaneau v. The Fone Booth: A Morris County jury awarded $2 million on Feb. 8 in a suit by an injured passenger of a bar patron, though the plaintiff will recover only $800,000.

On March 28, 2006, Brian Birchaneau, then 20, visited The Fone Booth in Hardyston with a friend, Matthew Hurban, then 21. They stayed for 3-1/2 hours. With Hurban at the wheel, their vehicle missed a curve, hit a tree and overturned.

A toxicologist, testifying for the plaintiff, estimated that Birchaneau and Hurban each consumed 11 to 13 drinks and that Hurban showed a blood-alcohol concentration of .15 percent to .19 percent when last served, far in excess of the legal limit of .08 percent.

According to the trial evidence, Birchaneau suffered a fractured vertebra at L4, fractures to his right tibia and ankle and a degloving injury to the left calf. He required multiple surgeries for fixation of hardware as well as skin grafts from his thigh to the calf. Hurban suffered a severe brain injury.

Superior Court Judge David Rand allowed the jury to assess Hurban's comparative negligence against that of the bar, but did not allow Birchaneau's comparative negligence to be put to the jury because he was under the legal drinking age at the time, says Howard Popper, a Morristown solo who was one of two lawyers for Birchaneau.

The jury apportioned 35 percent of liability to The Fone Booth and 65 percent to Hurban. Birchaneau will recover $700,000 from the bar, but Hurban settled before trial for $100,000.

Popper says he and co-counsel Cornelius Caruso , of Tobin, Koster, Reitman, Greenstein, Caruso, Wiener & Konray in Rahway, are entitled to fees and costs under the Offer of Judgment Rule because The Fone Booth did not take his $60,000 pretrial offer.

The bar's insurer was QBE of New York. Its attorney, Thomas Heavey , of Grossman & Heavey in Brick, says he will move for a new trial.

— By Charles Toutant

From

SLIP AND FALL
$1.8M FOR SPINAL INURIES
Ira Miller Jr. of Glenwood has received a $1.85 million settlement for spinal injuries from a January 2002 fall at Sussex County auto dealership. After he fell on ice while looking at a car at High Point Chevrolet, he needed lower-back surgery and a rare operation in which the front of his spine was reached through his chest. Miller, now 52, still has respiratory problems, takes pain medication and wears a brace from his neck to his waist. Before the fall, he was a computer technician for The Record of Hackensack and a bass player in a rock band. "He'll never work again," said his lawyer, Howard D. Popper of Morristown. The case was settled after two days of talks before mediator Robert Feldman of Tinton Falls. John J. McGrath of McKissock & Hoffman in Haddonfield represented the dealership and its owners in Miller v. High Point Chevrolet.