Union Porter Wins $14,768,000 Verdict After Hand Crushed In Building Compactor Scene of Injury Altered

On April 15, 2015 at 5PM, a unanimous Manhattan jury awarded Jose Humareda $14,768,000 after a six-week trial before Justice Lynn Kotler. Mr. Humareda was represented by Stuart L. Finz of the preeminent national law firm Finz & Finz, P.C.

On April 23, 2010, Jose Humareda, a 61-year-old porter at a seventeen-story Upper East Side Manhattan apartment building, had his right hand crushed and nearly amputated by a defective and modified trash compactor located in the sub-basement of the building. Mr. Humareda was improperly trained to use a piece of wood to clear jams in the compactor while the machine was running.

While Mr. Humareda was being rushed to Bellevue Hospital for emergency surgery, the scene of the injury was altered by the removal of evidence that incriminated S. Garson, LLC, the defendant property management company. The alteration of evidence continued through trial when S. Garson, LLC submitted an altered inspection record to court in response to a subpoena served by Mr. Finz. The document submitted to court by S. Garson, LLC, deleted the fact that the compactor was found to be defective.

Mr. Humareda came to the United States from Peru in 1987 to attain a better life for his family. After several years of hard work and taking any job he could get, he became a United States citizen, joined the union 32BJ and got the job as a porter at the Upper East Side apartment building where the injury took place.

Stuart L. Finz, the senior trial attorney at Finz & Finz, P.C., who tried the case, proved that the defendant failed to provide a safe workplace for Mr. Humareda by not ensuring that he was properly trained and that the trash compactor was properly inspected and maintained. Although the defense claimed that Mr. Humareda was at fault for causing his own injury, the jury found that S. Garson, LLC was 100% responsible.

During summation Mr. Finz requested that the jury award Mr. Humareda a total sum just under $10,000,000 for pain and suffering, lost earnings and medical care. The jury clearly understood the severity of the pain and suffering that Mr. Humareda endured and will continue to endure and awarded an additional $5,000,000 for pain and suffering for a total verdict of $14,768,000.