BY LAURAANN WOODLaw Bulletin staff reporter

A Cook County jury onWednesday awarded $148,190,997to a woman paralyzed by a fallenpedestrian shelter at O’Hare In-ternational Airport. The verdictwas released before Circuit JudgeClare Elizabeth McWilliamsaround 5 p.m.This is the largest Cook County

personal-injury verdict ever re-ported, and it’s the largest verdictever reported against the city ofChicago, according to John L.Kirkton of the Jury Verdict Re-porter, a product of Law BulletinMedia.On Aug. 2, 2015, Tierney Darden,

then a 24-year-old Mundelein res-ident, was injured while waitingout a storm in the pedestrian shel-ter outside the Terminal 2 arrivalsgate. The suit, filed in Cook Coun-ty Circuit Court later that month,alleged the shelter collapsed onher, leaving her paralyzed.Darden, who was enrolled as a

dance student at Truman StateUniversity in Missouri at thetime, sued the city and its Avia-tion Department for failing to se-cure the shelter and preventing it

from being dislodged by thestrong winds.The shelters are typically se-

cured to the concrete withseven metal anchors, Darden’slawsuit alleged. But the shelterthat fell on her contained riggedparts and was missing most ofits anchors.“No one owned up to that,”

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C.chairman and managing equitypartner Patrick A. Salvi saidduring a news conference this

morning. “Everyone that wasshown the pictures agreed, ‘Thisis a bad condition, shouldn’t bethis way, we should be checking,we should be monitoring — notmy job.’” Salvi said Darden’s trial team

deposed nearly every person whocould be responsible for checkingand maintaining the nearly 30-year-old shelters, but he was“flabbergasted” that no oneclaimed such responsibility. Hesaid Salvi partner Jeffrey Kroll,who also represented Darden, hadto take “I don’t know how manydozens of depositions until finallythe city lawyers realized, ‘We haveno defense.’” The city admitted liability

Copyright © 2017 Law Bulletin Media. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Media.

Dance student left paralyzed in 2015 receiveslargest personal-injury verdict in Cook history

$148M verdict for airport shelter collapse

Volume 163, No. 165

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Tierney Darden, second from the left, joined her family and trial team this morning at the Alise Hotel on Washington Street to discussthe $148 million verdict jurors awarded her Wednesday after a 10-day trial at the Daley Center. Photo by Lauraann Wood

about five months before trial,which made damages the jury’sonly issue to consider.Darden’s spinal cord was pulled

and ripped apart in the incident,Salvi said.“It’s actually worse than a clean

cut of a spinal cord, as the doctorsdescribed it,” he said during theconference. “That is really the pri-mary reason that she has unfortu-nately fallen into a minority ofparaplegics that have severe neu-ropathic pain.” Darden told the jury during

trial that she knew she was para-lyzed because “there was a crackand a white light and everythingwent numb.” During the conference, she said

she was upset with the citythroughout her case because whathappened to her was preventable.

“I was more upset than any-thing and kind of heartbroken be-cause my legs were taken awayand those were the two thingsthat I needed to do the one thingthat I love, which was dance,” shesaid.Darden’s last demand before

trial was $95 million, Salvi said,and the city’s last settlement offerwas $30 million. Darden asked thejury for $174 million.After nearly five hours of delib-

eration, the jury awarded her $5million for past lost of a normallife, $56 million for future loss of anormal life, $10 million for pastpain and suffering, $30 million forfuture pain and suffering, $6 mil-lion for emotional distress, $2.5million for disfigurement, $3 mil-lion for increased risk of harm,$500,000 for a shortened life ex-

pectancy, $985,411 for past med-ical expenses, $32 million for fu-ture medical expenses and$2,205,586 for future lost earn-ings.The verdict falls within the

city’s $500 million insurance poli-cy with AIG Aviation for incidentsarising out of the airport.While the amount is significant,

Salvi said, anyone who satthrough Darden’s trial would un-derstand “it is fair and reason-able.” “Tierney suffered what the doc-

tor’s described … as the worstspinal cord injury someone couldsuffer — not just in terms of para-lyzing her, but also unfortunately… it will result in her having to dealwith very, very severe neuropathicpain for the rest of her life. Andshe’s only 26. So, yeah, the verdict

is substantial, but it should be.” Darden was also represented

by Salvi partners Tara R. Devine,Patrick A. Salvi II and associateEirene-Gin Nakamura Salvi.The city was represented by

Steve Williams of Williams &Gundlach LLC as well as DentonsUS LLP partner Leah R. Bruno,managing associate Kristine M.Schanbacher and partner MarkDombroff, who was admitted onpro hac vice status from the firm’sMcLean, Va., office.A spokesman from the city’s

Law Department said, “We aredisappointed in the jury’s verdictand are evaluating our legal op-tions.”The case is Tierney Darden v.

City of Chicago, et al., 15 L 8311.Law Bulletin editor Marc Karlin-

sky contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2017 Law Bulletin Media. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Media.