Nation - New York Court tosses subway fall suit after $2.3M award

NEW YORK (AP) -- A jury said he deserved $2.3 million, but an appeals court Tuesday threw out a lawsuit filed by a man who lost part of his leg after he drunkenly fell into the path of a subway train. Jurors didn't have enough evidence for their conclusion that the train's motorman could have stopped it before it hit Dustin Dibble in April 2006, a state Appellate Division panel said. Dibble, 26, lost part of his right leg in the accident at Manhattan's Union Square station. He had been out with friends watching hockey at a bar, according to his lawyer, and said he was too drunk to remember how he ended up on the tracks or anything about the accident. Jurors last year found Dibble bore some responsibility for his injury, but they put most of the blame on New York City Transit, which runs the city's buses and subways. "The jury's determination that the accident could have been avoided was based on nothing more than a series of estimated stopping distances," the judges wrote. The motorman died before the trial but had previously testified that he initially saw a lump that "looked like garbage," and he didn't immediately stop because debris is common on the tracks. He said he stopped a few seconds later after seeing the object move. Dibble's lawyer, Andrew Smiley, said the appeals court intruded on a question it should have left to the jury. The transit agency said it was pleased with the ruling. It said in a statement that the public shouldn't have to compensate people who "place themselves in positions of obvious danger through their own reckless conduct." Published: Thu, Jun 24, 2010

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