On September 13, 2019, I along with Keith J. Bruno of Carpenter, Zuckerman & Rowley obtained a $5,75 million dollar verdict for a great young man who was injured when he was a kindergarten student at Emerson Parkside Academy. The physical education teacher had the kindergarten students run as fast as they could from a starting point to a backstop and back. The kids were sent in waves and ran at different speeds. Our client was hurt when a student, who apparently was avoiding another student veered out of the path and then returned to the path striking our client. Our client fell and struck his head on the asphalt. The PE teacher only saw the collision out of his peripheral vision and may have been on his cell phone. Our client had in fact sustained a skull fracture and a subdural hematoma. When he went to the hospital they found a brain contusion on CT scan. The client later had an MRI that showed the remnants of blood, hemosiderin, on the surface of his brain. Neuropsychological testing revealed that part of our client’s IQ had been reduced to an 80 score, which is well below average intelligence. After a two week trial the jury returned a $5.75 million verdict for our client. We are currently working on securing the verdict for our client, while Long Beach Unified School District continues to avoid responsibility and is using the court system to delay justice and the payment of the damages to this great young man who was injured due to their negligence.
