Larry Lum (Partner-New York, NY), Aviva Stein (Partner-White Plains, NY) and Elizabeth Scoditti (Of Counsel-New York, NY) obtained a favorable damages-only verdict in a premises liability case against  a member hospital of New York's largest health care provider in Richmond County Supreme Court, 13th Judicial District, New York. An earlier summary judgment decision found the client 100 percent liable for the plaintiff’s trip-and-fall accident over an exposed and protruding bolt on the pavement at the hospital entrance. Alleged injuries included three-level disc herniations in the cervical spine requiring anterior fusion surgery at C4-5 and disc replacement at C5-6; torn labrum and arthrodesis/non-union at the acetabulum requiring hip replacement surgery. Plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury to award a total of $3M in pain and suffering damages ($1M past and $2M future); the client elected to hand a jury a blank check less than a week before Christmas and refused to authorize any more than $500,000 to settle – which was never acceptable to the plaintiff. The jury rendered a verdict totaling $300,000 for past pain and suffering and $100,000 in future pain and suffering for the next 30 years of the 50-year-old plaintiff’s life expectancy. There were no claims for medical bills or lost earnings. The jury determination hinged on whether plaintiff was seeking to recover for preexisting issues or whether the need for surgeries to the hip and neck were only prompted by the accident, with the court charging both aggravation and susceptibility to the jury.