The plaintiff's attorney, Philadelphia injury attorney Leonard Hill of Hill & Associates, P.C., intends to use the case to challenge a $250,000 cap on damages against state agencies.
PHILADELPHIA, May 12, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Summary
- A jury delivered a $2.3 million premises liability verdict against the Philadelphia Housing Authority.
- Plaintiff Arthur Logan claimed he sustained a knee injury falling down poorly lit steps on a property owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority.
- The plaintiff's attorney, Philadelphia injury attorney Leonard Hill of Hill & Associates, P.C., intends to use the case to challenge a $250,000 cap on damages against state agencies.
- The cap has been the subject of ongoing constitutional challenges, including in a case poised to go before the state Supreme Court.
Plaintiff's lawyer Leonard Hill intends to use the case to challenge Pennsylvania's cap on damages against state agencies.
The jury's seven-figure award was against the Philadelphia Housing Authority, so it is subject to a $250,000 limit on what a single plaintiff can collect against the state. But Leonard Hill of Hill & Associates said the cap is overdue for an adjustment.
"Because of the cap, a lot of lawyers don't want to get verdicts, so they will settle a case that should be in the multi-millions for pennies on the dollar," Hill said.
Hill said he intends to take the case, captioned Logan v. Philadelphia Housing Authority, to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He is currently preparing a post-trial motion arguing that the cap violates plaintiffs' due process rights. This challenge won't be the first to question the constitutionality of the damages cap.
Another case, Frielich v. SEPTA, is awaiting a ruling on a petition for appeal before the Supreme Court on the same central issue, after lower courts ruled that they were constrained by precedent to reject the plaintiffs' challenge. Despite ruling against the plaintiffs, the lower courts suggested in their respective opinions that the cap may be unfair.
And Frielich was crafted as a response to a 2014 high court decision that upheld a $500,000 cap on damages against municipal agencies but was accompanied by a concurring opinion that left the door open for further challenges.
According to Leonard Hill, the legal questions involved in Logan mirror those found in the other cap challenges.
"It's the same constitutional argument," he said, "but what's important is not so much the sameness, it's the repetitiveness."
Hill said the number of constitutional challenges to the cap reflects how often juries find state agencies are liable for damages above and beyond what the limit allows. "The citizens of Pennsylvania are upset that these caps are too low" he said.
The jury's Feb. 27 verdict in Logan valued plaintiff Arthur Logan's damages at $2.3 million, though the award was reduced to $1.9 million based on a finding that the plaintiff was 35% negligent. The trial was held before Judge Susan Schulman of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
Logan claimed he sustained a knee injury falling down poorly lit steps on a property owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA).
PHA was represented by David Bateman of Bateman Caliendo. PHA argued that the stairs in question were in good condition and that Logan did not take any precautions to navigate them in the dark. Bateman declined to comment, and the PHA did not respond to a request for comment.
Hill noted that the cap has not been adjusted for inflation or cost of living since it was enacted in 1978, and argued that his goal is not to do away with the limit, but to adjust it.
"The cap needs to be raised substantially to reflect the 40-year gap between its inception and the present," he said. "It's not that we think that there should not be a cap, we just think that there should be a fair cap."
Hill & Associates has been an injury law firm in Philadelphia since 1999, and represents clients in many cases involving personal injury. If you have been injured through no fault of your own, contact the firm at (215) 567-7600 for a free consultation.
Media Contact
Ray Mitchell, Gravimetric, LLC, 1 (864) 376-2267, [email protected], https://gravimetric.io/
SOURCE Hill & Associates, P.C.
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