$2,000,000 Settlement for Concert Patron Injured by Stage Diver
On April 2, 2017, a retired police officer suffered spinal injuries when a stage diver flipped off the stage at a New Jersey concert, landing on our client’s head. The client was represented by Mark W. Morris with the Clark Law Firm, P.C. in Belmar, New Jersey. The incident, which occurred in Asbury Park, took place during a live hard rock concert. During the course of the show, the venue allowed patrons to jump off the stage into the crowd.
At the time of the incident, the law firm client became trapped in a large crowd near the stage. Security personnel were positioned between the crowd and the stage in a barricaded area. But security stood by as people climbed past them onto the stage, and jumped off on to the crowd below. Right at the end of the show, a patron in a grey hoodie sweatshirt was allowed to climb onto the stage, turn back, and do a corkscrew jump over the lead singer and onto the client’s head, damaging his spine. He immediately fell to the ground and lost feeling in his extremities. You can see it at the end of this video clip:
The client was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, NJ where he had his C-4 vertebrate removed and a portion of his C-3 vertebrate removed to relieve pressure on his spinal cord. The client also underwent a fusion from C3-C5 and extensive rehabilitation and physical therapy. The client, who was an extremely active individual prior to this incident, worked diligently with his doctors to return to his pre-incident activities of surfing, bike riding and skiing. You can see some of the actual injuries and surgery here.
A Complaint was filed in Monmouth County Superior Court and following initial discovery, the case proceeded to mediation with the Honorable Kenneth J. Grispin, P.J.Cv. (Ret.) in August of 2020. Shortly following the mediation, Mark W. Morris, settled the case for the full insurance policy limits of $2 million. The case only pursued an insurance recovery. The individual defendants were voluntarily dismissed from the case without having to pay anything.
“We are pleased we were able to recover the maximum amount of available insurance coverage for our client. This type of needless injury should have been prevented and they should not have let people jump off the stage onto the crowd,” said Morris. “People who go to concerts should not have to worry about someone landing on their head. It is important concert venues and promoters hire competent security people that don’t let this kind of thing happen. We hope by achieving this result, we can prevent this kind of thing from happening to others in the future.”
