Our client was in an elevator that suddenly dropped before the emergency brakes started. The abrupt drop and stop caused our client to whiplash and sustain a cervical spine injury. Defendant elevator company denied any problems with their elevators. However, we later learned that simultaneously another elevator in the same building had a similar occurrence and injured those occupants. This turned out to be a hybrid products liability case and workers’ compensation claim. We settled with the elevator company for $900,000 and her employer paid benefits with a final cash settlement in the amount of $400,000, for a total settlement amount of $1.3 million dollars.
