CAT judgment cut to $14 million for paraplegic man

Bill Gang

Tuesday, June 8, 1999 | 9:48 a.m.

A negotiated settlement has ended the legal battle over a record-setting $25 million judgment awarded a disabled man who was turned into a paraplegic in an accident while boarding a CAT bus.

Although Monday's settlement was confidential, courthouse sources indicated it was for $14 million -- the figure that attorney Randy Mainor had asked the trial jury to award.

That amount is nearly seven times more than Lee O'Brien and Mainor were willing to take in a pre-trial settlement and 80 times more than the $175,000 offered by ATC Vancom of Nevada, the company that operates the Citizens Area Transit system.

The settlement came just after Mainor was informed that he has been chosen "Trial Lawyer of the Year" by the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association.

While avoiding comment on the settlement figure, Mainor said the settlement "will allow O'Brien to obtain the medical care he needs without the risks, expense or delays of court appeals" in the 6-year-old case.

The CAT bus injuries have left O'Brien in constant pain that requires the daily use of methadone.

Mainor said he hopes the multimillion-dollar settlement will make the CAT system "more aware of the safety concerns of its passengers."

"We're extremely pleased with the settlement," Mainor's partner, Richard Harris, said.

O'Brien, already relegated to a wheelchair because of a motorcycle accident in 1982, had been using an automatic ramp to board the bus in 1993 when the driver prematurely raised the device, according to trial testimony.

O'Brien, 40, said the movement knocked his wheelchair out from under him and sent his head and neck slamming against the metal ramp.

O'Brien had sensation in his legs -- although not their use -- before the incident. That ended when he fell from the ramp. A paraplegic has lost both motor and sensory functions in the legs.

ATC Vancom had accepted responsibility for O'Brien's injuries but simply had not been willing to meet the price being sought to resolve the case.

There was no question at the March trial whether O'Brien knew how to board the bus using the device. The jury heard that after O'Brien graduated from Sagamon State University in Springfield, Ill., his first job was teaching wheelchair-bound people how to get on and off buses.

The bus company's position was that O'Brien's debilitating injuries were, in large part, a degeneration of his earlier disability.

At trial O'Brien recalled the bus driver telling him as he lay sprawled on the ground, "You can't be hurt, you're already a paraplegic."

"But the jury understood that people who are handicapped can be hurt," Mainor said after the trial.

O'Brien blamed the bus driver's impatience in trying to rush him onto the bus.

The driver, who was not named in the lawsuit, was terminated by the bus company, Mainor said.

After the jury award, O'Brien noted the judgment doesn't ease the pain.

"You know, my neck still hurts and my back still hurts," he said. "The money doesn't change a physical thing."

Mainor had described O'Brien as a "fiercely independent and self-sufficient" man who now suffers a variety of medical ills because of the additional damage the CAT bus incident caused to his already frail body.

O'Brien said in March he hoped the massive award provides a little education about how companies should deal with wheelchair bound people.

"Everyone needs a little more education," he said.