Judge Refuses To Slash Verdict In GUNS N' ROSES Suit
March 16, 2006Asher Hawkins of The Legal Intelligencer has issued the following report:
A Philadelphia judge has declined to remit the six-figure verdict a jury awarded to a woman who claimed a December 2002 ankle injury outside the then-First Union Center was caused by arena management's failure to foresee and prevent the riotous behavior sure to sweep the crowd once the cancellation of a GUNS N' ROSES concert was announced.
Michelle Heenan was, at the time of the accident, a single 39-year-old Northeast Philadelphia resident who worked as an administrative assistant at a local hospital.
Heenan asserted that defendants Comcast Spectator and Spectrum Arena Limited Partnership should have recognized the crowd would become unruly when the rock band's Philadelphia show was canceled, as roughly a month earlier, GUNS N' ROSES fans in Vancouver, British Columbia, had rioted when the band called off its show in that city.
Heenan had also filed suit against the band and various tour and concert promotion companies, but those defendants were either dismissed or granted nonsuits.
In the spring of 2005, the jury in Heenan v. Comcast Spectator found against Comcast Spectator and Spectrum Arena Limited and awarded Heenan $140,000.
In an opinion filed last week, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Eugene E.J. Maier urged the Superior Court to affirm his denial of the defense's post-trial motions seeking JNOV, a new trial or remittitur.
Read the rest of the article at www.law.com.
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