Quadriplegic to Get $1.4 Million, Plus $9,500 Monthly

A 32-year-old Palmdale man who broke his back and was paralyzed when his bicycle plunged off a state-owned bike path will receive $1.4 million in cash and $9,500 a month for life under a settlement with the state announced Tuesday.

Michael Gay, who was a metal fabricating plant superintendent, has been a quadriplegic with only about 20% use of his arms since the accident in the Palmdale area Sept. 8, 1984, his attorney, Jeffrey Matz, said.

If he has an average life span, Matz estimated, Gay will receive a total of nearly $12 million.

The attorney said Gay was cycling on the path that parallels the California Aqueduct when he lost control on a steep grade and struck a pool of loose sand, flipping over into a six-foot-deep ditch and breaking his back near the base of his neck.

According to Matz, the state was sued because when it opened the bike path in 1977, it staged an invitational ride and asked for comments and criticism. Although some riders complained that sand and gravel made some grades dangerous, Matz said, nothing was done about it.

The settlement was reached in a series of conferences before the case came to trial last spring, Matz said. A bill authorizing the settlement was passed in early September by the Legislature at the suggestion of the attorney general’s office and was signed by Gov. George Deukmejian last week.

Senior Assistant Atty. Gen. Marvin Goldsmith said Tuesday that the $9,500-a-month payments, which will come from an annuity policy purchased by the state, are guaranteed for 20 years, even if Gay dies, thus providing for the paralyzed man’s wife and two daughters.

The monthly payments will increase at 3% a year.

In addition, Goldsmith said, Gay is to receive a lump-sum payment of $20,000 every four years beginning Oct. 1, 1990, until 2034.

Matz said Gay is “delighted to know he can now get his rehabilitation and the surgeries he needs and that he can take care of his family.” He said Gay’s operations are necessary to correct gnarling of his hands.

Although the man who once bicycled frequently from his Palmdale home to his job in Burbank has been unable to do little more than steer his electric wheelchair since his paralysis, Matz said, “he has one of the most positive attitudes I have ever run across.”