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Injured woman awarded $475,000

Gloucester Daily Times
Saturday, June 1,1991

Times staff

An east Gloucester woman who broke her leg when she fell into an open manhole at a Metropolitan District Commission parking lot in Revere won a
$475,000 judgment in Lawrence superior Court this month.

The jury, after deliberating for about an hour on the two days of testimony ordered the MDC to pay $310,000 in damages and $165,000 in interest to Maxine Cusumano.

Cusumano, 63, of Nautical Heights, had parked her car at the MDC lot adjacent to the Wonderland subway station on Jan. 24, 1986. When she got out of her car, she turned and her right leg went into an open manhole, according to her
lawyer Joseph Orlando of Orlando and Associates. Both lower bones in her left leg snapped, and her ankle came away from the foot joint, he said.

Surgeons had to put plates and screws in her ankle, and her leg was in a cast for six weeks, Orlando said. She spent six months in physical therapy before she could return to work at the Cape Ann Marina Motel, where she was a chambermaid before the accident and now works in the laundry room.

The defense offered no reason why the manhole was not covered, said Orlando.

An MDC foreman testified that on the morning of the accident, a barrel filled with 300 pounds of sand had been placed over the manhole.

"He said somebody must have moved it," said Orlando.

Orlando said one interesting aspect of the case was $100,000 is usually the limit on judgments against the state.

Orlando argued that although the MDC is a state agency, in running a parking lot and charging a fee it was acting like a private business.

Orlando said he expects the MDC will appeal the judgment based on the $100,000 limit. He predicted "It may go all the way to Supreme Judicial Court."

Orlando & Associates
One Western Avenue
Gloucester, MA 01930
(978) 283 - 8100
fax:  (978) 283- 8507
email: firm@orlandoassociates.com