Stock image.
Miami, FL— A Florida jury earlier this month found Miami-Dade County liable for the injuries a bicyclist suffered when she was struck by a security gate arm, handing down a nearly $5 million verdict in the case, while also clearing the security company that oversaw the gate. LaTour v. Miami-Dade County, et al., 2018-CA-000853.
The $4.915 million award includes $4.75 million to Lourdes LaTour and $165,000 to her husband, Edward, for the broken arm she suffered in 2017 when she was struck by a gate arm as she tried to leave Gables by the Sea, a South Florida subdivision, on her bicycle. The injury required multiple surgeries to treat and has left her with permanent nerve damage.
The 11th Circuit (Florida) State Court jury apportioned 100 percent of liability to Miami-Dade County, which owns and is responsible for the roadway entering the subdivision, clearing co-defendant U.S. Security Associates, Inc., the security firm hired to oversee the security gate. Jurors also declined to apportion any fault to LaTour herself.
The verdict exceeds the roughly $1.5 million to $3.5 million range of damages the LaTours’ attorney, Matthew Schwencke, of Searcy Denney, suggested in closing arguments. However, the ultimate payout of any award will likely be affected by a state law capping municipal liability at $300,000 per incident, as well as any subsequent filing of a Claims Bill to the state’s legislature, seeking damages over those limits.
In an email to CVN after the verdict, Schwencke indicated he would look to file a Claims Bill after any statute-driven reduction in the verdict.
Lourdes LaTour was injured when the security gate arm lowered and struck her as she rode her bicycle beneath it, and the three-day trial focused on how the arm was supposed to operate and who was ultimately to blame for the incident.
The county maintained the arm was malfunctioning in opening for bicyclists, and that U.S. Security did not notify it of the malfunction before the incident. The county also contended LaTour should have heeded warnings that the gate was not to be used by cyclists.
During his closing argument, Richard Schevis, representing the county, told jurors that multiple signs, including one featuring pictograms and a written warning on the arm itself, notified cyclists they were not to use the gate.
“We purchase a system that won’t open for bikes, we put multiple signs on there, warning people: ‘Don’t take your bike through here.’ All of that, I submit to you, is reasonable,” Schevis said. “[It’s] not negligence.”
But Schwencke argued that the warnings were too small to easily be seen, especially under the circumstances, with a gate arm that opened as bicycles approached.
“You want to tell someone you shouldn’t use this gate, you give them advance warning. You put up caution signs, you direct them,” Schwencke said. “None of that was done by the county. And to suggest that the little writing that’s on the gate arm that moved and opened for [the LaTours] was sufficient to put them on warning of that danger belies your common sense.”
Schwencke added that U.S. Security also bore blame because it failed to notify the county that the gate arm was malfunctioning. “The security guards knew it was activating, knew bicycles were going underneath it,” Schwencke said, “[but they] never told [the county]. They never told them.”
However, US Security pushed back on claims that the gate arm was malfunctioning. During his closing, Wilson Elser’s Roberto Ureta told jurors the arm was designed to open when it detected metal passing over it. And he noted that two years after the county was notified of LaTour’s injury, the gate arm continued to open for bicycles.
“Why wasn’t the county notified [before the incident] that bicycles were triggering the gate sensors?” Ureta asked. “Because it’s not a malfunction.”
In an email to CVN after the verdict, Schwencke wrote that evidence surrounding the county’s duty to warn played a central role in the verdict.
“The county knew that the automatic gate system at Gables by the Sea was dangerous for motorcyclists and bicyclists, “ Schwencke wrote. “The warning decals were unperceivable by a human being approaching the gate. Despite knowing that the automatic gate system was dangerous, the county utterly failed to warn the Latours of the dangers of exiting on their bicycles through the automatic gate. The jury clearly understood that.”
CVN has reached out to attorneys for the county and U.S. Security and will update this article with their comments.
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
Related information
Not a subscriber?
Learn how you can access an unrivaled trial video library featuring the nation's best attorneys.
