Fall victim sues Mercer County arena, wins $1.3M
TRENTON » A Willingboro man who suffered a nasty fall injury at CURE Insurance Arena several years ago is entitled to more than $1 million in damages, a civil trial jury found.
Terrence Scott slipped and fell at the former Sun National Bank Center on Valentine’s Day 2015, suffering a torn rotator cuff requiring open surgery and internal fixation, according to his attorneys.
Suing the arena’s ownership and management for damages, Scott filed a civil-action complaint in Mercer County Superior
Court in June 2016, alleging Global Spectrum L.P. “failed to make the place reasonably safe” from hazardous conditions that included “dangerous ice, covered by snow.”
Nearly five years after the fall incident, a trial jury on Jan. 29 returned a verdict awarding Scott with $1.25 million in damages, finding Global Spectrum 100 percent liable. The jury also awarded $50,000 in consortium damages to Suzanne Scott, finding she had been deprived of the assistance and society of her injured spouse, according to the Williams Cedar law firm representing the married couple.
Unhappy with the jury’s decision, Global Spectrum intends to launch a legal resistance campaign.
Samuel J. McNulty, a lawyer representing Global Spectrum, submitted a letter to Superior Court Judge Anthony Massi dated Feb. 11 saying the defendants will move for a new trial and seek a judgment notwithstanding the verdict.
By a preponderance of the evidence presented at trial, a Mercer County jury found that Terrence Scott’s injury was caused by Global Spectrum’s negligence. Global Spectrum’s defense team, however, is expected to attack the jury’s verdict as improper and excessive.
Based upon McNulty’s correspondence, the profitable Global Spectrum L.P. does not want to pay $1.3 million in damages and will ask Massi to intervene.
Under New Jersey case law, a trial court judge “may not disturb a damages award entered by a jury unless it is so grossly excessive or so grossly inadequate ‘that it shocks the judicial conscience.’”
Global Spectrum’s pending request for “remittitur” implies the firm is open to paying a modest amount in damages. If the plaintiffs and defendants mutually agree to a reduced payout, the judge could accept the remittance agreement and nullify the jury’s $1.3 million verdict award.
Likewise, the slip-andfall case must proceed to a new trial on damages if either party rejects a remittitur, according to New Jersey case law.
A legal motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, also known as a JNOV, is a formal request asking a judge to overrule a jury’s verdict. In the case of Global Spectrum, its pending JNOV motion will likely assail the jury’s $1.3 million verdict in favor of the Scotts.
JNOV motions typically accuse a jury of reaching a faulty verdict, one that represents a “miscarriage of justice under the law.”
CURE Insurance Arena is a Trenton-based asset owned by the Mercer County Improvement Authority or MCIA and managed by Global Spectrum L.P. The venue opened in 1999 and has undergone several name changes since its founding.
This arena at 81 Hamilton Ave. was known as the Sun National Bank Center when Terrence Scott fell Feb. 14, 2015, following a concert.
Global Spectrum L.P. does business as Spectra Venue Management, which is owned by Atairos, an independent private company backed by Comcast Spectacor, an industry leader in sports and entertainment.
The Mercer County Improvement Authority, a public body affiliated with the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders, passed a resolution in May 2015 saying it is “obligated to operate the Arena in a manner that protects the safety of its patrons and promotes the efficiency of its operations.”