Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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The Seventh Circuit United States Court of Appeals has affirmed a decision by the district court judge regarding the burden of proof in a Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) case.

Ronald Williams was a substitute U.S. Postal Service letter carrier who had parallel parked his truck to visit a friend.  The plaintiffs in this case, David Furry and Diane Nye, were driving by that home when their vehicle collided with the parked U.S. Postal Service truck, which was driven by Williams.

Furry and Nye testified that they did not see the postal truck before the impact. Williams, realizing that regardless of the outcome, he would be fired for the use of his truck to visit a friend, offered Furry $500 not to report the incident.  

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An Illinois truck accident case was reviewed by the Illinois Appellate Court to determine whether or not the trial court had erred in its delivery of jury instructions and whether the jury had awarded too much damages. However, after reviewing the case facts, the appellate court upheld the trial court proceedings and eventual verdict in Andrzej Chraca v. Steven Miles, 2011 Ill.App. (1st) 100537-U.

The Chraca lawsuit involved a 2004 car crash between Andrzej Chraca and Steven Miles. Chraca was driving an SUV at the time, while Miles was driving an Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) truck. Both Chraca and Miles suffered degrees of paralysis following the Schaumburg truck accident and both drivers filed personal injury lawsuits against each other.

The two cases were consolidated into one personal injury lawsuit by the Circuit Court of Cook County. At the end of the trial, the court ruled in favor of Chraca and against Miles. Chraca was awarded $23.8 million in damages, which was broken down as follows:

-$500,000 for disfigurement;
-$593,335 for past medical expenses;
-$3.5 million for future medical expenses;
-$2.5 million for past and future pain and suffering; and
-$18 million for past and future loss of a normal life.

And while both lawsuits were consolidated for the purposes of the Cook County personal injury trial, the appeal deals only with the lawsuit filed by Chraca.

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Kristen Beauford was on her bicycle in the northbound bike lane at 100 S. Halsted in Chicago.  The defendant, Nicolas Kapsoulos, was driving his car away from a Starbucks at that Chicago Greektown location.  As Kapsoulos attempted to make a left turn onto northbound Halsted, he struck Kristen, who was on her bicycle. The car knocked her off her bike and onto the adjacent sidewalk. 

Ms. Beauford, 22, suffered a torn medial meniscus of her knee and a bulging back disc at the lowest level, L5-S1. She underwent epidural steroid injections and physical therapy.

Ms. Beauford lost 3 days of work as an office assistant. The defendant, Mr. Kapsoulos, admitted his negligence.  The issue at trial was the nature and extent of the plaintiff’s injuries. Before trial, Ms. Beauford made a demand to settle the case for $65,000. The offer made by the defendant was $994. 

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Jeffrey Elder, 43, was brought to the emergency department at Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Joliet, Ill., with severe chest pains. The emergency department physician, Dr. Andrew Zwolski, determined that Elder was not having a heart attack. However, he did order a CT scan, which showed a dilated aorta. This often leads to a diagnosis of an aortic dissection.  If confirmed, an aortic dissection would require immediate surgical repair to save the life of the patient. Aortic dissection symptoms are similar to those of other heart problems, such as a heart attack. Typical signs and symptoms include sudden severe chest or upper back pain, shortness of breath, sweating and a weak pulse.

 

To rule in or out the diagnosis of the aortic dissection, a CT scan with contrast was required. Because Dr. Zwolski’s shift was ending, he instead chose to delay the contrast CT testing until Elder was admitted into a room.

 

Before leaving the hospital, Dr. Zwolski called another internist, Dr. Hussain, who was named as a defendant as well, to admit Elder and take over as the attending physician.  He also called the defendant cardiologist, Dr. Yi, to provide a cardiac consultation.

 

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On April 25, 2008, Marie Wilkins, a teacher at Everest College, started walking toward the Metra train station at Michigan and Van Buren streets in Chicago. She was walking south across Van Buren Street, between State and Wabash, where Van Buren intersects midblock with an alley. The alley is also known as Holden Court in some parts of the Loop.

 

It was at this alley that she was hit by a backing vehicle traveling eastbound on the one-way westbound street. The car was being driven by the defendant Orlando Solis, 27, and was owned by the defendant, Cynthia Ayala, who was a passenger.

 

Wilkins, 60, was knocked to the ground, and she lost consciousness. She sustained a fractured scapula of her left shoulder and a fractured fifth metacarpal/little finger on her left hand. She also sustained elbow bursitis and a two-inch scar on her left knee. No surgery was necessary, but she did undergo physical therapy and lost three months of work as a medical assistant instructor plus $85,300 for lost opportunity to teach an additional class for a full course load for 4 years until the school closed.

 

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On Sept. 30, 2006, Kathleen Nelson slipped and fell on a wet floor while walking down a hallway at the Merchandise Mart.  She was employed there in one of the showrooms. The floor was wet from water that had dripped from a mop used by a maintenance worker employed by the defendant, Millard Group.

The fall was captured on a surveillance video, which showed that the Millard employee left a washroom with the mop, but no bucket. That procedure violated the company policy on mopping floors. A security guard employed by defendants had walked right past the spot where Nelson fell, just a minute before. Apparently the maintenance worker did not see water on the floor until plaintiff showed him after she fell.

Nelson, 54, sustained soft tissue injuries to her neck and back and required 6 months of physical therapy. She also suffered anxiety and panic attacks for two weeks following the incident. Nelson developed post-traumatic stress disorder from the occurrence along with arm tremors. She claimed $48,824 in medical expenses and $10,000 lost time for four months when she was unable to work as a part-time showroom salesperson.

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William Andrews was driving northbound on Western Avenue on Feb. 11, 2007 when his car collided with a pickup truck driven by defendant Luis Chavez. Chavez ran the red light while travelling westbound on 139th Street in Blue Island.

Andrews, 28, sustained a closed head injury with a brain bleed resulting in short-term memory loss, personality changes, uncontrolled emotions and mood swings, and a loss of his job as a cable installer for Comcast. He claimed inability to ever work again.

Luis Chavez was an undocumented Mexican national who did not have a valid driver’s license. After the crash, Chavez fled the scene on foot and was later convicted of leaving the scene of an accident involving injury.

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Sara Peretsky, a well-known author of the V.I. Warshawski novels, was a passenger with her husband, the driver, on Lake Shore Drive when they were rear-ended by another car that was driven by the 16-year-old defendant, Vy.  Vy apparently lost control of his vehicle.  The impact caused Peretsky’s vehicle to spin and strike a retaining wall.

Peretsky, 58, is a novelist and writer who claimed that she suffered whiplash with cervical radiculopathy, shoulder, arm and hand injuries. Her medical bills totaled $19,850.

Peretsky claimed that her injuries prevented her from completing a manuscript on time, causing her to be forever behind in her publishing deadlines. She claimed lost income of $1,518,000.

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In September 2002, John Defries, an ironworker, was employed by II in One Contractors, Inc. and was working at its Wacker Drive reconstruction project in Chicago. Walsh Construction was the general contractor for the project and was named the defendant in this case.

Defries alleged that he slipped and fell on wet rebar that was being set near the intersection of Wacker and Franklin streets.  Because the rebar had been sprayed by Walsh employees who cleaned the area while he was on break, it was alleged that the area where Defries fell was slippery.

Defries, 50, claimed that he sustained a torn rotator cuff along with a meniscus and ACL tears in his knee. Surgery was required for each injury. Defries claimed medical bills of $121,000 and more than a million dollars for lost time from his job.

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Clanton Pitchford, a truck driver, was in Tucson, Ariz., in 2006 and spent a night in his semi-trailer truck parked at a truck stop. The accident that caused this lawsuit was the collision with the rear end of Pitchford’s truck and a Knight Transportation truck traveling at about 5 mph.

Pitchford, 59, was sleeping in a raised bed behind the driver seat of his tractor when the collision took place.  He was tossed around, but did not fall out of the bed.  The accident caused Pitchford low back pain, which he did not have before this incident.

Pitchford went to a local emergency room five hours later and was diagnosed with a lumbar strain.

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