Rockville Jury Sides With Driver, Rejects Safeco’s Arguments About Prior Injuries

McCoy Get’s $170,000 Verdict In Vernon Rockville Connecticut Court for Client, After $17k Offer by Insurance Carrier

A six-person Rockville Superior Court jury has awarded $170,172 to a
Manchester woman who re-aggravated her back after a driver T-boned her
Lexus in September 2015.  The jury actually added figures to the defense attorney’s verdict form, it was just like Attorney Jason L. McCoy requested, giving McCoy’s client future medicals and past medicals that were not listed in the defense interrogatory.  The jury wrote in extra lines on the defense interrogatory.   Attorney’s usually claim Rockville juries are  award low verdicts on personal injury cases but McCoy said that in his “past experience and in this case that is not true”.   

The jury heard testimony from three people—all plaintiff witnesses—on
how the crash had an adverse effect on 61-year-old Cynthia Sementilli,
who still suffers from severe back pain nearly four years after the
collision, according to her Vernon-based attorney, Jason McCoy.

While the defense didn’t call any witnesses during the
one-and-a-half-day trial, McCoy said they tried to attribute
Sementilli’s pain to a previous lumbar fusion and cervical fusion to her
neck.
McCoy, the owner of Law Offices of Jason L. McCoy, said he believes
testimony from his client and her primary care doctor, Angelee Carta,
helped sway the jury and resolve Sementilli’s amended lawsuit against driver Alyssa Sorgio and Safeco Insurance Co. of Illinois.

“My client was honest, straightforward and believable about the
problems she had before and after the accident,” McCoy said
Tuesday about Sementilli’s four hours of testimony. “I believe the jury
felt really connected with my client.”

McCoy believes Carta’s testimony helped seal the deal, and after
about seven hours of deliberations, the jury rendered its
verdict in Sementilli’s favor.

“The doctor when through my client’s medical records and was able to
show this pain was from this accident,” McCoy said. “The doctor told how
my client had intractable pain after the accident, which means it was
caused by the accident.”

Representing Safeco was James Donohue with Meehan, Roberts, Turret
& Rosenbaum in Glastonbury. Donohue did not respond to a request for
comment Tuesday, but in court pleadings, Safeco denied any negligence
by its client, Sorgio. It also claimed Sementilli’s injuries were
preexistent. The reason was that the Plaintiff was having injections to he back two weeks before the accident and was scheduled to have injections after the accident. 

Safeco did, however, agree not to appeal the verdict.

She argued she’d suffered neck, back and knee injuries in
the crash. Her attorney said the neck and knee pains have since
resolved, but others remain, making Sementilli a candidate for back
surgery.

“The doctors have told my client that the pain in her back will be
permanent,” McCoy said. “She still has pain and cramping and spasms. The
more activity she does, the worse her back gets.”

Sementilli, a nurse, was allegedly injured after a vehicle Sorgio was
driving allegedly struck her car in Manchester in 2015. Responding
officers cited Sorgio for failure to grant the right of way.
McCoy, who said he believes the jury verdict was fair, said the
defense had offered $17,000 to settle the case before trial, while the
plaintiff had demanded $40,000.