Last week, mediation efforts in a long-running personal injury case led to an out-of-court $6.95 million settlement for the plaintiff, Susan Camicia. The city’s insurance will cover the full amount, according to a city press release sent Oct. 26.
In 2006, Camicia sustained severe injuries from a bicycle accident on the Interstate 90 Trail in Mercer Island that left her paralyzed after she hit a fixed wooden bollard while attempting to avoid temporary construction fencing that extended onto the trail. She sued both the City and the Howard S. Wright Construction Company, which was overseeing the building of a Park and Ride garage at the time of the accident.
This case has taken a long journey through the court system, making its way to the Washington State Supreme Court and back before ultimately being settled in mediation rather than by jury trial.
According to the press release, the safety of bicyclists and all trail users is of utmost importance to the city. The I-90 Trail carries tens of thousands of users every year across Mercer Island without incident. No other I-90 Trail injuries of this scale have occurred since this one, and the city strives to maintain that record of safety, according to the press release.
Initially, the city argued a “recreational immunity” defense in the case, considering the I-90 Trail to be a park. Camicia’s lawyers said that the trail is a transportation corridor and that recreational immunity does not apply.
The case was set for jury trial beginning Nov. 2, but settled on Oct. 22.
In September, the city was fined $10,000 for withholding and destroying records related to the case. On Oct. 12, the city sent a memo to the Reporter with a summary of the case that noted Camicia had received a settlement from the Howard S. Wright Construction company.
According a motion for default judgment filed by Camicia’s lawyer, that information was “excluded evidence” that may have influenced jurors, and disseminating it violated an agreement between Camicia and the city granted in May 2015.
