Mother, Sister Included : $8.8 Million Goes to Elevator Victim

A former Huntington Beach woman and her two young daughters won an $8.8-million lawsuit settlement as a result of the younger daughter suffering a serious head injury in a home elevator accident, their lawyer announced Tuesday.

“It is a miracle she is still alive or did not suffer serious brain damage,” said Ned P. Reilly, the family’s Santa Ana attorney.

Brianne Hawkins, who was 3, and her sister, Desarae Hawkins, who was 6, had gotten into an elevator at the home of their mother’s fiance in the Canyon Lake area of Riverside County, Reilly said. They wanted to go downstairs to get a teddy bear.

The safety gate on the elevator did not close, and while it was moving, Brianne Hawkins peered through the crack between the elevator floor and shaft. In doing so, her head was past the outer edge of the elevator. When the elevator reached the second floor, the girl’s head slammed into the concrete floor, Reilly said.

Brianne, who will be 8 this month, suffered a fractured jaw, lost almost all her teeth and lost substantial facial bone, Reilly said. She has undergone several major operations, and may have to undergo more, he added. The injury left a long facial scar and affected one of her eyes and her general appearance.

“The kids at school called her ‘Monster Mouth,’ ” Reilly said. “She says she didn’t let them bother her, but I tell you, when I took those girls’ depositions, it was tragic. Just talking about the accident made them cry.”

The accident occurred on June 27, 1984, at the home of Eugene Anderson, a paraplegic who had the elevator installed for his wheelchair.

Reilly claims that the elevator contained violations of several national standards. But the main problem was that it could be operated without the safety gate if something was placed over the

safety control. Construction people doing some work on the house kept leaving the gate open.

Reilly said that Anderson admitted having a friend place a block of wood over the control so he could operate it with the gate open.

“The problem was the workers kept leaving it open while they were working downstairs, and he was stuck upstairs,” Reilly said.

The girls’ mother, Dawn Hawkins, married Anderson after the accident. But they were divorced soon afterward, and she filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court against Anderson and three companies: Karat Development Co., which signed a contract with Anderson to have the elevator installed; California Custom Lift, which installed it, and the Waupaca Co. in Wisconsin, where it was built.

Reilly said the four defendants agreed to terms of the settlement. They also agreed not to disclose how much each would pay.

The settlement gives Brianne Hawkins $25,000 for four years for a college fund, $3,000 a month for the rest of her life, with built-in inflation increases, and more than $50,000 in trust for medical bills.

The mother was awarded $50,000 in cash, plus $1,000 a month for 10 years to pay medical bills for her daughter. The older daughter, Desarae, received $20,000 a year for four years for her college education.

“Her sister, Desarae, blames herself because she was the older; she has nightmares about it,” Reilly said.