In New York County, a jury awarded a women the staggering sum of $45 million for brain damage sustained as a result of a shopping cart that was tossed by teens. The accident occurred at the East River Plaza Mall. Judge St. George presided over the trial. IMHO, the award will likely be reduced on appeal.
According to the New York Post, victim Marion Hedges, 53, shook with emotion when the verdict was announced — but she didn't shed a tear because a side effect of her brain damage is the inability to cry.
Hedges, her son, Dayton, and her husband, Michael, sued Target, the mall and its security company for negligence in 2011, saying the businesses ignored past incidents involving kids fooling around with carts.
The Hedgeses previously settled with Target for a confidential sum.
The boys were caught and served time in a juvenile detention facility, but the jury found them only 10% responsible. Jurors deemed the mall 65% responsible and a security company the remaining 25%.
Jurors awarded Hedges $40.7 million, her 19-year-old son $2.5 million and her husband $2 million. Dayton Hedges testified that he still has nightmares about the incident, and his father said he has become more of a caretaker than a husband.
One juror, Joel Walker, told The New York Post that “money can't buy back what she'll be missing the rest of her life.
“This was a horrible, horrible incident that happened to Mrs. Hedges and her family,” said Walker, 43.
The jurors reached the verdict after just three hours of deliberating following a four-and-a-half-week trial.
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