A jury awarded $45.2 million to a brain-damaged philanthropist and her family who sued an East Harlem mall where two youths tossed a shopping cart onto her head.
The Manhattan Supreme Court jury took just three-and-a-half hours to reach its colossal verdict after a month-long trial, in which lawyers for Marion Hedges argued that East River Plaza mall and Planned Security Services didn’t do enough to keep her safe.
“It’s been a long, long road,” said Hedges, who clapped after the verdict. “This nightmare hopefully will end.”
They plan to give some of the award to the nearby Johnson Community Center to help teenagers.
“We want to help Harlem kids have a chance to do something besides throw a shopping cart on a boring Sunday afternoon,” Hedges said.
Hedges, 53, was buying Halloween candy for needy kids with her son on Oct. 30, 2011, when two boys, who were 12 at the time, threw a shopping cart from a fourth-floor walkway.
“I found out in the hospital, doctors coming in said to me, ‘You should have died. You were dead,’ ” Hedges testified. “I didn’t know what to say.”
“I saw a shopping cart over to the left,” said her son, 19-year-old Dayton, when he took the stand.
“I went to pick her up,” said Dayton, who was only 13 at the time, “and she was just covered with blood.”
Hedges told jurors she’s a shadow of her former self — incontinent and incapable of physical intimacy, struggling with her vision and memory.
She won $40.7 million. Her son received $2.5 million and her husband received $2 million.
East River Plaza and Planned Security are on the hook for 65% and 25% of this sum, respectively.
The boys who threw the cart are responsible for 10%. They were each sentenced to six months in a halfway house.
Attorney Thomas Moore, who represented Hedges, argued during the trial that the mall company and security firm were well aware that people had hurled items from upper-level walkways — including rocks and a glass bottle — before the near-fatal attack some seven years ago.
“It was like a mini war zone up there,” said Moore, who also pointed to missing security logs during his closing statements, “and they did nothing, absolutely nothing.”
Lawyers for the mall and security company said they are likely to appeal.
Jeffrey VanEtten, who represents Planned Security, said while they “personally feel for the Hedges and while we all would like this case to be over, we strongly feel that Planned Security had properly and professionally performed their job and that (this) horrible tragedy was unforeseeable.”
Jurors who weighed the case were eager to speak about their verdict, with several saying that missing security logs and emails were key.
“That was the main thing throughout the whole trial,” said Corey Saunders, 36.
Juror Joel Walker pointed to the emotional toll of the incident in explaining how their award was reached.
“This was a horrible, horrible incident that happened to Mrs. Hedges and her family,” Walker said, explaining that she “can’t buy back what was missing the rest of her life.”
Justice Carmen St. George praised Hedges after the verdict came down, saying, “I think you have shown us all how to live in the face of adversity.”
