Baton Rouge attorney Jerry McKernan
said his partner, Bob Friedman, handled most of the highly
publicized case, which went to trial about one month ago.
Because of an agreement reached
during jury deliberations between the plaintiff and the apartment
complex's insurance company, the girl's family will receive a
maximum of $17 million in a trust fund.
Tiffinie McGough drowned in a
swimming pool at the Indian Springs Apartments in Houston on July
16, 1989. Her 2˝-year-old sister, Taffidie, also fell in the pool
and is now a quadriplegic, McKernan said.
"The verdict of this jury reflects
once again that the people in society who clearly disregard the
safety of our children will be treated very harshly, and that is
exactly what this case shows,” he said.
The eight-woman, four-man jury
deliberated for about 15 hours over three days before deciding in
favor of McGough's grandparents, who brought the suit in behalf
of the children. They awarded them $84,250,000.
"The jury foreman was quoted as
saying they wanted to send a message to all of the apartment
complexes throughout the country that this kind of conduct would
not be tolerated,” he said.
The girls' mother fell asleep
in their apartment, and both children went outside and wandered to
the pool area. A gate door at the pool was defective and would not
lock, and both children went inside, McKernan said.
The jury's verdict represented the
largest personal injury award in Houston's history, he said.
The jury awarded the girls' mother
$275,000, less 15 percent because they ruled the mother was 15
percent at fault.
They also found the complex's
management company, H. R. Management, 50 percent at fault and the
apartment complex itself 35 percent at fault, McKernan said.
The agreement reached between the
plaintiff and the apartment complex's insurance calls for a
maximum of $17 million to be placed in a trust fund to be
administered by the court for Taffidie.
McKernan said his client agreed to
the $17 million limit, which represented all of the available
insurance money, even though he and Friedman had asked their
client not to accept the agreement and instead wait on the jury's
verdict.
"Of course, at the time, you don't
know what the jury will decide, and they didn't want to put the
apartment complex into bankruptcy and run the risk of not
collecting anything,” McKernan said. "I think the apartment
complex will operate a lot safer now."
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