$150,000 Verdict

New York Premises Accident

Stavros Sitinas obtained a $150,000 verdict for a man whose finger was partially crushed between two sectional panels of an overhead garage door at a home he rented from the defendant. The plaintiff claimed that he had been experiencing problems with the automatic garage door and had verbally asked his landlord to fix it. On the day of the accident, the garage door did not open and he was forced to manually pull down the door, overriding the automatic function. When he pulled the manual release cord, the garage door began to free-fall to the ground; the plaintiff impulsively reached out to slow the door, but got his finger caught between two panels. The defendant denied that plaintiff told him about the defective door blamed the plaintiff putting his hand in harm's way. The plaintiff underwent a surgical procedure to successfully reattach skin on the tip of his finger, but he still feels numbness and tingling. The defendant never offered any money to settle the case, but the jury found the defendant negligent and awarded our client with $150,000.

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