Sketches of Court: Jury awards $3.6M against Transit Authority
In this courtroom sketch, Hon. Richard Velasquez listens as plaintiff’s attorney Andrew Meier (standing), of the law offices of Burns and Harris, stands before an evidentiary exhibit as he summarizes his arguments for the jury in the motor vehicle accident trial Ormond v. MTA. Defendant’s attorney Bryan Williams, outside counsel to the NYC Transit Authority, is seated at right.
At issue in the bifurcated trial was the determination of damages. Ormond claimed to have been seriously injured in a fall as she stepped off a bus. Ormond’s foot caught on a misleveled sidewalk subway grate, for which an earlier jury found that the Transit Authority was wholly negligent. Ormond alleges that the accident caused bilateral meniscus tears to her knees and that she suffers from neck and back herniations. Ormond maintains that she is in continual pain and has failed to respond to conservative treatment.
Williams sought to refute the June 2012 fall as the cause of Ormond’s condition, maintaining that objective evidence failed to prove traumatic changes, as opposed to degenerative ones. Williams also noted the lack of surgical treatment.
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