On June 2, 2010, Rosemary McKnight was a passenger in a city bus which rear-ended a tanker truck on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn.

TA bus Nostrand Ave.

As a result, Ms. McKnight, then 48 years old, injured her neck and both knees. In her ensuing lawsuit against the transit authority and its driver, Ms. McKnight’s motion for summary judgment as to liability was granted in April 2011 and the case proceeded to a trial on damages only. On July 18, 2013, the Kings County jury awarded her total damages in the sum of $2,270,000 as follows (and as set forth in the verdict sheet):

  1. $900,000 for pain and suffering ($150,000 past – three years, $750,000 future – 25 years);
  2. $480,000 for lost wages ($80,000 past, $400,000 future – 11 years); and,
  3. $890,000 for medical expenses ($190,000 past, $700,000 future – 25 years).

The defendants appealed arguing that the awards for lost wages were excessive because, before the bus crash, plaintiff had been receiving Workers Compensation and Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits from a work-related accident eight years earlier. They also argued that the medical expense awards should be reduced because some of plaintiff’s bills were paid by no fault insurance. There was no challenge to the pain and suffering awards.

In McKnight v. New York City Transit Authority (2d Dept. 2017), the appellate court agreed with the defense to the extent that it ordered a $150,470 reduction of the lost wages awards to take into account the $205 per week plaintiff had received in Workers Compensation benefits since the new accident and that she would receive in the eleven years following the verdict.

comp

Under CPLR 4545, in personal injury lawsuits, the judge may reduce the amount of a plaintiff’s award if he finds that any element of economic loss encompassed in the award will be replaced, in whole or in part, from a collateral source. In this case, as contemplated by the statute, the judge conducted a post-trial collateral source hearing on August 25, 2014 at which the defendants offered evidence that plaintiff’s awards for lost wages and medical expenses should be offset by the Workers Compensation and SSD benefits she had been receiving and which defendants argued she would continue to receive in the future.

The trial judge declined to make any offset; however, the appellate judges disagreed and ordered the $150,470 reduction mentioned above to take into account the Workers Compensation benefits plaintiff had been receiving and, the appellate judges concluded, she would with reasonable certainty continue to receive for the eleven year period of her lost wages jury award.

Ms. McKnight’s earlier accident occurred when she tried to lift a heavy patient who fell while she was a nursing assistant at a senior care facility. As a result, she sustained injuries to her right shoulder and lower back, underwent rotator cuff and lumbar fusion surgeries, was unable to continue that job after about three years of light duty accommodation and was awarded Workers Compensation and SSD benefits.

At the time of her 2010 bus accident, plaintiff was preparing to re-enter the work force, having completed schooling to become a certified medical assistant. Her injuries in the new accident included herniated discs at C4-7, a torn anterior cruciate ligament in one knee and a torn meniscus in the other and required her to undergo cervical fusion and bilateral arthroscopic knee surgeries. She contended at trial that the new accident and injuries prevented her from engaging in any new employment.

cervical fusion3

Inside Information:

  • On the day of the bus accident, Ms. McKnight was on her way to an EKG test that was one of the last things she had to do to become and accept a job as a certified medical assistant.
  • Plaintiff was receiving SSD benefits of $1,080 per month for herself and $470 per month for her twin children (the kids’ benefit ended a month before the collateral source hearing). Thus, defendants sought a $244,300 offset to the lost wages awards. As set forth in the appellate court decision, the proof was insufficient to justify an offset for the SSD benefits. The court also held that the evidence was insufficient to justify any offset for no fault insurance benefits.