Auto Accident - Pothole Accident

$950,000 verdict for an 11 year old boy who’s facial scarring from the accident made him turn to a life of crime.

A group of young boys were playing stick ball on a street in the Bronx.  A the beginning of the block was a large pothole in, roughly, the center of the street.  When the ball rolled into the pothole (which was a few feet deep) the 11 year old got down on the ground to retrieve it.  On the traffic side of the hole was a wooden horse blocking cars from falling into this large hole.  As the boy was retrieving the ball, a car passed the horse and hit it.  The wooden horse flew into the boys head causing a depressed skull fracture.  Thankfully there were no neurological injuries, but he was left with a “lightning stike” scar on his temple.

At the trial we were able to establish that the electric company had previously modified a man-hole just 3 feet away from the pothole, and that their work cause the roadway to collapse forming the pothole.

Unfortunately, by the time the case came to trial the boy had grown to a man and had committed two armed robberies of gas stations.  Our office hired a psychologist to test him and give an opinion.  It was the psychologist’s testimony that when his playmates called him “scar face” (a reference to the famous gangster) at his impressionable age, he became “scar face”.  That was the force that drove this young man to a life of crime.  The jury accepted this testimony and awarded the plaintiff almost one million dollars for his damages.