Christopher L. Musmanno Secures $1 Million Settlement for Woman Seriously Injured Outside Library

Christopher L. Musmanno, Chair of the Accidents/Personal Injury practice and a Certified Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, secured a $1 million settlement on behalf of a 46-year-old woman who suffered significant neck and back injuries after being struck by debris during a vehicle crash outside a public library.

The client was walking to her vehicle in the library parking lot after exiting the building when another driver accelerated at a high rate of speed into the stone barriers at the library entrance. The impact caused a piece of the stone barrier to ricochet and strike the client’s right ankle, knocking her to the ground.

As a result of the incident, the client sustained serious spinal injuries that ultimately required multiple surgeries. She underwent a two-level cervical fusion to address injuries to her neck, followed by lumbar surgery that included a decompression with laminectomy, partial facetectomy, foraminotomy, and discectomy.

The matter resolved for $1 million before trial.

“Cases like this remind us that serious injuries do not always occur inside a vehicle,” said Musmanno. “What initially appeared to be an unusual accident became a case built on demonstrating the full medical impact of the collision and how dramatically it altered our client’s life. A careful presentation of the evidence made the extent of those injuries impossible to overlook.”