Largest Jury Award in NJ History

[NJCher]

I was in court today (somebody filed bankruptcy on me :() and I overheard the lawyers talking about this case. Unfortunately you have to register to get the full story but it is quite an interesting story, especially toward the end.

The gist of the lawyer's conversation was, "Why did they ever let this go to a jury?!!????"

DWI crash award rises to $135M
Thursday, January 20, 2005

By KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER

The beer-vending company at Giants Stadium must pay $75 million in punitive damages to a Cliffside Park family whose daughter was paralyzed in a car crash caused by a drunken fan, a jury in Hackensack ruled Wednesday.

Added to the $60 million in compensatory damages that jurors awarded the family a day earlier, Wednesday's verdict brings the total judgment to $135 million - placing it among the top 20 recent personal-injury awards in the nation.

The award concludes a month-long trial in Superior Court in Hackensack, in which Aramark Corp. was found liable for selling alcohol irresponsibly to a visibly drunk football fan on Oct. 24, 1999.

Daniel Lanzaro of Cresskill, who began drinking at a tailgate party earlier that day, went to two strip clubs after leaving the Giants game, then crashed his pickup truck into a car in Hasbrouck Heights. Ronald Verni, who was in the other car, escaped injury. His wife, Fazila Baksh Verni, was hospitalized for two months, and the couple's daughter, Antonia, then 2 years old, was paralyzed from the neck down.

More at:

http://www.bergenrecord.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk0NSZmZ2JlbDdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5NjY0MjIwNCZ5cmlyeTdmNzE3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTM=


Cher

[vi5]

1. The guy that did this is scum...

I don't believe in the death penalty but man would I like to see the bastard that did this suffer in any way possible. The concept of someone being so obsessed with numbing themselves from their own pathetic existences that they hurt, kill, maim, or paralyze and innocent person let a lone a 2 year old girl, is the lowest of the low.