Click a link below to read press reports about successful results that we have achieved for clients
- NYC settles $2.2M in sex discrimination case against pregnant corrections officers
- Injured passenger wins $2 million suit against cab company and NYCTA
- Wrongful death suit in Nassua Co. settled for $1.2 million
- Gown fire action is settled for $1 million
- Injured worker wins $2.3 million from TA
- $3.9 million verdict in childbirth death
City officials allegedly told 22 pregnant probationary correction officers to either have abortions or face dismissal from their positions. When the women refused to have the abortions, they were discharged.
The officers then sued the city and various correction department officials, alleging that defendants had violated their constitutional privacy rights and conspired to violate those rights. Plaintiffs claimed that defendants had conspired to terminate them to avoid paying pregnancy-related medical benefits and sick leave.
The parties settled for $2.2 million cash, paid by the city. In addition, the city agreed to reinstate the correction officers and contribute about $1.5 million to plaintiffs' pension funds and social security accounts to reimburse the funds lost from those accounts because of the terminations. The city also agreed to a permanent injunction against implementing a policy that discriminated against pregnant recruits.
$2,000,000 VERDICT - AUTO/BUS COLLISION - PLAINTIFF PASSENGER SUFFERS HEAD TRAUMA - ALLEGED TRAUMA INDUCED PARKINSON'S DISEASE.
In this action, the plaintiff taxi passenger, aged 36 at the time of incident, contended that as a result of the combined negligence of the defendant bus driver, who struck the cab in the rear, and that of the cabbie, who, according to the bus driver, swerved in front of the bus rendering the accident unavoidable, she sustained a head trauma which resulted in Parkinson's disease.
The plaintiff maintained that she lost consciousness momentarily, and the ambulance records indicated that the plaintiff was "stuporous." The hospital records reflected a questionable loss of consciousness, a bruise to the top of the head, a decreased range of motion in the left arm, and negative skull x-rays. The plaintiff was discharged with a diagnosis of a minor trauma, including contusions to the head.
A wrongful death suit against two physicians and South Nassau Community Hospital was settled yesterday for $1.2 million in Supreme Court, Nassau County.
Mr. J. I. had sued Drs. D. H. and J. K., and the hospital for failing to diagnose his wife's pre-eclampsia, a condition that can arise during pregnancy that increases blood pressure and causes headaches, cramps, protein in the urine and often seizures.
According to plaintiff's attorney, Michael Kaplen of De Caro & Kaplen, when Mrs. J. I., then 27, was taken to the hospital in November 1988, two hours elasped before doctors diagnosed her condition. When they subsequently terminated her pregnancy, she lapsed Into a coma and died.
Her private obstetrician Dr. D. H. will pay $1.1 million, and the other two defendants $50,000.
A sleepware manufacturer has settled for $1 million a suit brought by a woman who was permanently disfigured when her cotton nightgown caught fire in a kitchen-stove accident.
The settlement, made public this week in Manhattan federal court, involved C. B., who is in her 20s, and X Inc. of California, manufacturer of the product. The suit claimed the nightgown was not made of fire-retardant material and failed to carry a consumer warning label concerning flammability and quick-ignition time, according to the plaintiff's attorney, Michael V. Kaplen of De Caro & Kaplen, LLP.
A Yugoslavian immigrant has received a $2,375,000 cash settlement from the Transit Authority for injuries he suffered when he fell 40 feet while painting the ceiling of an elevated subway station in The Bronx.
J. G. broke his hip and wrist Aug 27, 1989, when makeshift scaffolding he was using collapsed according to his attorney, Michael Kaplen.
J. G., who was hospitalized, walks with a limp and has lost control of his hand, Kaplen said. He added that a city safety inspector saw the ladder and platform J. G., 41, had set precariously atop a truck to use as scaffolding -- in violation of federal safety regulations -- and failed to stop him.
The Transit Authority "has the same obligations as any other owner when it comes to...a safe place to work," Kaplen said.
A Brooklyn jury returned a $3.9 million verdict this week against the City Health and Hospitals Corporation for malpractice involving a 24-year-old woman who bled to death after undergoing a Caesarean section at Kings County Hospital in December 1991.
The complaint alleged the woman R. M., began hemorrhaging after giving birth to her second child - but doctors failed to treat her for five hours, requiring a hysterectomy to be performed. Michael V. Kaplen of De Caro & Kaplen, LLP, the family's attorney said drugs essential to halt the bleeding were not available, necessitating additional surgery during which her hypogastric vein was lacerated.
