Future Smells Sweet to Accident Victim Who Waited for Millions

When a jury ruled three years ago that Caltrans should pay Cynthia Christine Genrich $3.75 million for an auto accident on Coast Highway that left her brain-damaged, she wanted to buy her favorite $40 perfume from France.

Genrich has waited for her money while the state appealed the case. The price of the perfume, Magie Noire, has risen to $145 an ounce. But it doesn’t matter now.

On Wednesday, Genrich finally got her check from the State of California. With interest, it totaled $4,310,848.99.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” said Genrich, 28, as she endorsed the check, in slow, shaky, cursive script, sitting in a wheelchair in her attorney’s office. “It’s a very long time, lots of waiting. It really tires you out.” Now, she said, “I can look forward to getting better.”

Paralyzed on her right side, Genrich remembers nothing of the 1980 car accident that threw her 50 feet and ruptured her aorta. Then 20, she was a model and student at the Laguna Beach School of Art when a car struck her in a crosswalk at West Street and Coast Highway in South Laguna, where she lived at the time.

The jury found Genrich and the driver each 10% responsible for not having taken steps to avoid each other, but placed the rest of the blame on the California Department of Transportation for not correcting a dangerous crosswalk despite complaints of local residents.

Caltrans appealed the verdict to the 4th District Court of Appeal, arguing that the trial court should not have allowed in evidence statistics from a study that showed 244 accidents within a half-mile of the site.

In June, the court upheld the original verdict, and on Aug. 31 the state Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Thirty-five days later, the state’s check arrived.

After attorney’s fees, taxes and liens against medical treatment paid for by Medi-Cal, Genrich probably will be able to keep $2.5 million, attorney Frank P. Barbaro said.

Genrich’s husband, Scott Wolfe, Wednesday called the appeals by Caltrans “very cruel. We were suffering like dogs because of the state’s childish stalling.”

Gordon Baca, Caltrans deputy chief counsel, called the award “substantial” but not Caltrans’ most expensive check to a victim. That was about $8 million, he said.

Normally, interest runs about 10% from the date the jury verdict is returned, Baca said.

“If the verdict is upheld on appeal, it just accumulates,” he said. “When the doomsday moment arrives--three, four or five years after the original verdict--it’s a simple mathematical calculation, the rate of interest applied to the original amount of judgment and that’s your legal obligation.”

Baca estimated that 100 cases involving quadriplegics are pending against Caltrans. “Any one could result in a verdict of several million dollars.”

Genrich and her husband--who live in south Orange County but asked that the name of the city be withheld--said much of the money will be used to obtain further medical care, and to buy a new home with a therapeutic spa and elevator. She said she is in constant pain, can walk when aided, but limps because of broken bones from the accident. She hopes to obtain surgery to make her legs equal in length.

Wolfe, a financial counselor and yoga instructor, said he and Genrich met in church and knew each other for two years before the accident. They started dating after the accident and were married two years ago.

Genrich said she also wants to have “a lot of fun.” She wants to travel to Arizona, where “the stars and sky are so clear.”

“She’s always suffering,” said Michael McCartney, a Laguna Hills chiropractor who has been treating Genrich for two years. “It’s her attitude and her faith and support of her family that keeps her going.”

Genrich said she recites affirmations every day to keep her attitude positive. “Where I am, God is. Where God is, I am. So I am never alone,” she said.

She said she still believes no brain damage is “permanent” and hopes to be out of a wheelchair in two years.

Barbaro said Wolfe was instrumental in breaking the case by canvassing the community and finding residents who testified that they had complained to Caltrans about the crosswalk. After the suit was filed, Caltrans moved the crosswalk to the corner to the south.

Genrich said the crosswalk is still dangerous. “There should be a sign with a skull and crossbones on it,” she said.