A 36-year-old woman who was left with permanent brain damage when a glass door shattered on her has been awarded $35 million in damages.
Meghan Brown had been on her way out of a physical therapy appointment in 2015 when she approached a 7.5-foot-tall glass door in the lobby of the building.
She approached and pushed at the door, while at the same time a man holding a cellphone put his hand against the door.
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As they made contact, the glass appeared to spontaneously burst over Brown, causing glass to rain down on top of her. In footage from the scene, Brown could be seen holding her head before crumpling to the floor.
During a three-week trial in the Manhattan Supreme Court last month, Brown told the court she didn't remember the moment the door smashed, but she remembers being 'on the floor', the New York Post reports.
“I do remember seeing glass, like, everywhere, in the lobby, near me,” she said.
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Brown suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of the incident, and she was forced to have a year off work. When she returned, she claimed her career slowly declined, and she ultimately lost her job as a high-level analyst.
Brown's attorney, Tom Moore, told The New York Post: “Eventually she was let go permanently and has not worked in that type of investment banking since. She keeps trying but just can’t perform.”
The injuries also impacted Brown's ability to taste and smell; she forgot how to understand Spanish - despite previously being fluent in the language - and her memory, focus and vocabulary have all suffered, she told the court.
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Brown added: “Well, one of the biggest problems I have with my brain is that I can’t trust it."
Moore told the jury there is 'not a facet of [Brown's] existence that is unaffected by her brain injuries', but Thomas Sofield, a lawyer for the building owners, argued Brown couldn’t have got a brain injury from the way the glass broke.
Sofield attempted to paint the incident as one that could not have been avoided, as he said: “This was sort of a perfect storm of events, where you had [Brown] leaning on the door, you had the gentleman push on the door with the corner of his cellphone.
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“It was cold out and warm in, and the force on the glass was more than it could handle.”
“The truth is that the premises were reasonably safe. That defendant was not negligent. … and that Meghan Brown did not sustain a concussion or a mild traumatic brain injury in this case,” Sofield argued.
Following three days of deliberations, the jury ruled in favor of Brown and determined that negligence from the owner of the building was 'a substantial factor in causing' her injuries.
Brown was awarded a total of $35,184,208 in damages.
Emily Brown