MTA Attitude About Passenger’s Mishap Is on Wrong Track

Yvonne Wilson’s image ought to be on billboards and the sides of buses all over Los Angeles County. She’s been riding public transit since World War II, and at the age of 98, still loves getting around by subway because it sure beats getting stuck in traffic.

But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority does not seem to love the widow Wilson the same way she loves trains and buses.

Almost three years ago, Wilson was boarding the Red Line subway at the Pershing Square station when malfunctioning doors closed on her. Mrs. Wilson, a former accountant whose relatives are all dead and gone, fell flat on her back, banging her head against a wall. Instead of a gradual recovery, her health deteriorated.

Mrs. Wilson sued, but she wasn’t out to make a killing. She just wanted to cover her medical costs, so she offered to settle for $40,000.

No way, said the legal wizards at the MTA. They insisted on a trial, then proceeded to lose a $1.36-million judgment.

That was last year, but the MTA hasn’t paid a nickel to Mrs. Wilson and continues to battle her in court.

“They’re gambling on me dying,” she told me in her Bunker Hill apartment in downtown Los Angeles.

Nonsense, fumes Marc Littman, director of public relations for the MTA.

I expected as much. But I didn’t expect him to emphasize that Mrs. Wilson “allegedly” fell and that “no one witnessed it.” If there really was a problem with the doors, he added, “we would have had a lot more complaints about that.”

Why not just call her a gold-digging scam artist?

Littman also trashed L.A. County Superior Court Judge Soussan Bruguera’s ruling and said I wouldn’t be writing the column if the victim were not 98 years old.

I appreciate the career advice. And if I’m going to have an MTA shill tell me how to do my job, the least I can do is return the favor.

In case Littman hadn’t noticed, mass transit is not wildly successful in Los Angeles. Is it good PR to challenge the integrity of your best customer, who, yes, happens to be two years shy of 100?

Mrs. Wilson saw her doctor the day of the accident, but kept getting worse. “I could barely get out of bed,” she told me, describing partial paralysis that frightened her to no end.

It also cut into an active life. Mrs. Wilson was a volunteer at social functions in her apartment house, crisscrossed the city by bus and train, and occasionally went to see her beloved Dodgers. (A stuffed Dodger Dog is propped up on the sofa to watch games with her on TV.)

When Mrs. Wilson continued the slide, her doctor sent her to neurologists. During a two-week hospital stay, she was diagnosed with a nervous system disorder called polymyalgia rheumatica, and she’s still heavily medicated for stiffness and pain.

“I called MTA and asked for one of their complaint forms, but they dismissed that right away,” says Mrs. Wilson, who is tall, white-haired and bespectacled.

When the case went to court, the MTA did not get off to a flying start. The attorney showed up late, and the required fees for a civil jury trial had not been paid. Judge Bruguera heard the case without a jury and found in Mrs. Wilson’s favor.

Mrs. Wilson admits she was a little surprised by the $1.36 million. But the figure was based on projected medical bills and the cost of moving into assisted living.

MTA officials went nuts and filed an appeal, but Mrs. Wilson proved once again that she’s no opportunist. She and her attorneys -- Eleanor Southers, Steven Mehta and Michele Mann -- offered to settle for $450,000.

No thanks, said the MTA.

One can only assume the subway doors are still on the fritz, and keep closing on the heads of MTA attorneys. The agency recently offered $150,000, but Mrs. Wilson’s attorneys aren’t going to accept a fraction of a judgment they won fair and square.

One complaint in the MTA’s appeal is that it didn’t get a jury trial. But there’s a good reason, say Mrs. Wilson’s attorneys. The MTA never really wanted one.

If you were the MTA, would you have wanted the charming Mrs. Wilson to step gingerly up to the witness stand and tell 12 peers about bonking her head against the wall? That judgment could have been $5 million.

Mrs. Wilson says two of the train’s cars were out of service that day, and the door-closing alarm was not functioning. The MTA has admitted flat-out to negligence, but insists no link was proved between Mrs. Wilson’s fall and her current condition.

So whom did the MTA call to the witness stand as a medical expert? Mrs. Wilson’s regular physician, who is not a neurologist.

The doctor testified that it was difficult to be certain about a link between her fall and the neurological disorder. But given all the evidence, “I still think the polymyalgia rheumatica was related to the injury.”

The MTA’s Littman called me back to claim he never meant to impugn Mrs. Wilson, and he believes she’s entitled to compensation. But he wants to protect taxpayers against unwarranted payouts of public money.

Then what about the bill taxpayers are footing for several high-priced lawyers who’ve bungled this case from Day One? The meter is running, and it’s a safe bet the tab has soared past the $40,000 Mrs. Wilson would have settled for three years ago.

*

Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at steve.lopez@latimes.com