On April 29, 2022, after a week-long jury trial in Norfolk County Superior Court, and three hours of deliberation, a jury of seven returned a verdict for the Plaintiff and against Defendant Daniel J. Quirk Inc. on a premises liability case.
The Defendant, Daniel J. Quirk Inc., is one of the corporate entities that is part of the Quirk Auto Group enterprises, leasing and operating a parcel of land in Quincy MA known as the Shipyard for storing cars, auto-parts, and other purposes.
The Plaintiff is a 71 year old security guard, working for a different Quirk entity, and was injured when a large, rolling, security gate she was trying to close fell on top of her. The gate was old and had been giving other employees a hard time too, but the Defendants, via their security manager, assigned only this one elderly woman to this post, making her struggle every night. On the night of the incident, as Plaintiff was trying to close the gate – and couldn’t – a different Quirk employee was driving by, stopped, and tried to help. With two people trying to work the gate, the gate finally budged, but it came off its rollers and fell on top of the Plaintiff.
After finally getting the gate off the Plaintiff, she drove herself to the hospital and was treated for a broken wrist, as well as cuts and contusions to her entire body. A lifelong dog lover (and part time dog trainer) Plaintiff initially refused to go to the hospital by ambulance from the injury site, so she could stop by her house and take care of her dog (which also provided her needed support). Following the injury Plaintiff was out of work for about three months full time, and two more part time, but eventually returned back to work. Defendants denied any responsibility and instead tried to make the work environment even harder for the Plaintiff, hoping she would quit.
Plaintiff did not, and instead sought legal help from Sobczak Law, who, after initial investigation took the case on, and by 2019 filed suit in the Norfolk Superior Court.
Throughout litigation and discovery Defendants continued to deny any responsibility and claimed to have known nothing about problems with the gate, despite Plaintiff reporting it to her supervisors in the days prior. However, after several depositions, documents were eventually discovered that indicated that the Defendants knew the gate needed to be repaired well in advance, but just did not want to spend the money, and continued to assign the sole remaining elderly female employee to that post (when other, younger male employees were moved to newer gates (which had smaller, safer, and brand new swing gates)).
With COVID delays the case finally reached trial in April 2022, which happened to be the five year anniversary of the injury. After a week-long trial, the jury – based on all the facts before them – finally held Defendant Daniel J. Quirk Inc. responsible for the blatant violations of the property safety rules. Jury’s compensatory verdict was for $290,000.00, which, with statutory costs and interests will result in approximately $400,000.00 judgment finally giving the Plaintiff closure and justice.