Severe Spinal Cord Injury – Quadriplegia

Severe Spinal Cord Injury – Quadriplegia

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$20 Million

Following a highly complex analysis of a catastrophic spinal cord injury suffered by a young woman in a municipal park in Waterbury, CT, Stewart Casper assembled a team of experts to prove that Waterbury had failed to not only engage in fundamental risk management assessment on its winter sliding hill in Fulton Park but that it also failed to follow its own unwritten policy of removing obstructions within the “run out” for snow sledders and snow tubers. On February 15, 2007, Rose Marie Deschesnes had crashed into a fixed players bench at the base of the hill and suffered a fracture of the 5th cervical vertebrae, with resulting spinal cord injury together with other less severe injuries, but nonetheless serious injuries. The spinal cord injury left Ms. Deschesnes without the ability to move her body below her neck and confined to bed or wheelchair for the balance of her life, requiring 24/7 attendant care. After other lawyers had turned down her case, Stewart Casper saw the path to success and uncovered key evidence that would overcome the “qualified immunity” that often unjustly protects municipalities from their own incompetence. Having “cracked the code” for overcoming governmental immunity in this case, Casper set out a strategy for getting the case resolved so that he could quickly provide his client with desperately needed health care and upgraded living conditions, and thus avoid years of potential litigation including appeals. The result was an agreed-upon settlement with the City of Waterbury and its excess insurer Chartis that exhausted all available insurance coverage. The commitment of $8 million to resolve the claim will result in a lifetime of non-taxable structured settlement payments for Ms. Deschesnes that could reach $20 Million. See the story from the Connecticut Law Tribune for more details.