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2M award in crash The following publications have written articles on a $2M settlement resulting from a Rte. 4 Crash:
TWO MILLION SETTLEMENT JUNE 8, 1982 Victim gets $2M for Rte. 4 Crash By Bruce Rosen A Manhattan woman whose husband and infant son were killed in a 1975 crash after a van jumped a divider on Route 4 in Teaneck has won at least $2 million in damages in a settlement with the state and the driver of the van. The agreement, announced yesterday in Hackensack, comes exactly one year after a precedent-setting ruling by a Superior Court jury. The ruling found the state Department of Transportation negligent in its repair work on a section of Route 4. Repeated resurfacing blamed Repeated resurfacing of the highway lowered the height of an 18-inch concrete road divider, a condition that contributed to four accidents that killed four persons and left five children orphaned. Once the liability question was resolved, each accident was assigned separately to new juries to determine the amounts of damages. Yesterday’s settlement was the first to be reached. One of the largest The settlement is one of the largest ever negotiated in Bergen County’s courts, said E Carter Corriston, the woman’s attorney. State attorneys agreed to pay almost $750,000, plus possible interest, and $102,000 a year for life, with 10 years guaranteed, to Lois Burns, 38. Critically injure in the June 1975 accident, she was in a coma for 13 weeks. The insurance company for the driver of the van, Ari Eres, formerly of Westwood and Suffern, N.Y., agreed to pay $230,000. Eres, now 35, was injured in the accident, but not critically. State to appeal liability While the state has agreed to a monetary figure for damages, it still plans to appeal its liability in the case. State officials have expressed fear that the liability decision, if upheld, could head to a sharp increase in the number of suits against the state and against county and municipal road departments. After a seven-week trial last year, the jury found the state partly liable for the accidents because of road repair work that lowered the height of the concrete divider A year earlier, in 1980, the New Jersey Supreme Court opened the door for the finding by ruling that the Transportation Department’s immunity from suit did not cover accidents caused by road repairs. Barrier was replaced The divider, which ran from Route 208 in Fair Lawn to Route 95, near the George Washington Bridge, was replaced by a 32-inch barrier several months after the early-morning accident in which Mrs. Burns’s husband, Harold 33, and their 6-week-old son, David, were killed. Mrs. Burns’s parents, Elias and Sylvia Kaggen, were appointed Mrs. Burns’s guardians in 1975 while she was undergoing physical rehabilitation. Mrs. Burns, who at the time of the accident was on maternity leave from a job as an art teacher in the New York City school system, suffered brain damage and severe hearing loss, leaving her unable to work. Corriston said. Yesterday’s settlement came in the fifth day o a jury trial before Superior Court Judge David B. Follander. Three cases pending There are three other accidents for which
damage settlements or verdicts have yet to be reached: $2M awarded in fatal crash A 38-year-old Manhattan woman, whose husband and infant son were killed in a 1975 crash after a van jumped a road divider, has won at least $1 million in damages in a settlement with the state and the driver of the van, according to the woman’s attorney. Lois Burns, who suffered brain damage and severe hearing gloss and was in a coma for 13 weeks after the accident, will receive about $250,000 for the insurance company for the driver, Ari Eres, 35, said attorney E. Carter Corriston in Hackensack yesterday. The balance of the settlement will be paid by the state and the state’s insurance company, Corriston said. The settlement, entered in Superior Court Monday, came after four days of testimony in a trial to determine damages. The settlement also comes exactly a year after a precedent-setting ruling by another Superior Court jury, the attorneys aid. The ruling found the state Department of Transportation negligent in its repair work on a section of Route 4 in Teaneck where the accident occurred, he added. Repeated resurfacing of the highway lowered the height o an 18-inch concrete road divider, which contributed to three fatal accidents, according to Corriston. The state plans to appeal its liability in the case, officials said. The divider, which ran from Route 208 in Fair Lawn to Route 95, near the George Washington Bridge, was replaced by a 32-inch barrier several months after the early morning accident in which Burns’ husband, Harold, 33 and their 6-week-old son, David were killed.
State order to pay accident settlement By J. Scott Orr The state must pay most of a settlement worth at least $2.1 million after a jury found the state liable for a car wreck in which a vehicle jumped a concrete highway divider. State deputy Attorney General Jonathan Williams said during a hearing on the settlement in Hackensack yesterday that the state plans to appeal the finding of liability. The settlement is one of the largest ever in Bergen County, according to the victim’s attorney E. Carter Corriston, who practices in Hackensack. Under the settlement, Lois Burns, 38, of New York City, would receive a lump sum payment of $1.1 million, plus $102,000 per year for life or 10 years, which ever is longer. She is to receive $300,000 for the death of her husband, Harold, 33, $53,750 for the death of her six-month-old son David and $650,000 for her own injuries, which include brain damage and hearing loss. A defendant in the case, Ari Eres, 35, of Suffern, N.Y., will pay $230,000 of the settlement while the state will pay the rest. The state’s share, however, would be less than the amount awarded to Burns since the annual sum will come from an annuity fund to be set up at an undisclosed price. The settlement stems from an accident seven years ago in which a car driven by Ere jumped the divider on Route 4 in Teaneck and struck the Burns’ vehicle head-on. After a seven-week trial before Superior Court Judge David B. Follender in June, a jury found the state liable because it raised a portion of the road surface and thereby diminished the effectiveness of the divider. Burns, formerly an art teacher in the Bronx, has been unable to hold a job since the accident, according to a pair of doctors who testified in four days of hearings on the settlement. She was comatose for 13 days following the accident before being transferred to Kessler Institute in East Orange for rehabilitation. She lives now with her parents in New York her husband was a school administrator there. A spokesman for the state Department of Transportation said it has not re-evaluated its policy on dividers since the state was ruled liable in the case a year ago.
$2 M for brain-injured mother By herald-News Staff Writer A woman who suffered brain damage and lost her infant son and husband in an accident on Route 4 in Teaneck will receive a t least $2 million in a settlement approved Monday by a driver and the state Department of Transportation In Hackensack, the settlement was placed on the record on behalf of Lois Burns, 31, of New York City, who sustained brain damage and had been comatose following the accident June 1, 1975. In the accident, her 33-year-old husband, Harold, and their infant son, David, were killed when their van was hit head-on by a van driven by Ari Eres, 35, formerly of Westwood, Eres’s van crossed a divider, which had originally were 19 inches high but had been reduced by 4 inches when the DOT resurfaced the road. Following the resurfacing, there were a number of fatal accidents on hat stretch of Route 4. In June last year, a Bergen County jury found the DOT could be held liable for the accidents. A TRIAL on Mrs. Burns’ negligence suit had begun last week before Superior Court Judge David B. Follender. But on Monday, Mrs. Burns’s attorney, E. Carter Corriston, announced the terms of a settlement.
Crash victim wins $2.1 M A settlement of $2.1 million was awarded yesterday to a New York City woman who was seriously injured in a Teaneck accident in which her husband a 6-week-old son were killed when a van struck their van. Harold Burns, 33 and his infant son, David, were killed June 1, 2975 when a van driven by Ari Eres, 35, of Suffern, N.Y. jumped the divider on Route 4 and struck them head-on in Teaneck. Eres was found liable in the case by Bergen County superior Court jury in June 1981. The jury also found the state Department of Transportation liable because it raised the level of the road without adjusting the divider. The state has filed an appeal of the jury’s decision. Lois Burns, 38, suffered brain damage and hearing loss due to the accident. She was schoolteacher and her husband was a school administrator in New York. Burns will receive $300,000 for the loss of her husband. $53,750 for the death f her son and $650,000 for her own injuries. In addition, she will receive $102,000 annually for the rest of her life through an annuity.
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