Woman, 97, Wonders if She Will Ever Get Paid by MTA

Yvonne Wilson believes the Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants her to die.

Wilson is 97 years old, a willowy woman with few friends and no family who spends her days cooped up in a subsidized apartment in downtown Los Angeles.

Since a subway accident three years ago, she trembles at the thought of riding a bus or a train, even though she must, for trips to the grocery store, pharmacy and doctor.

After the accident, Wilson won a $1.36-million judgment against the MTA.

Since then, she said, the agency has refused to settle, and has appealed the decision -- a strategy, she believes, of stalling until her death makes the judgment irrelevant.

“It’s enough to make you sick that a public agency would treat someone like this,” Wilson said. “They were found liable; they were offered a deal. Now they are just trying to wait me out. That’s just terrible. Meanwhile, I’m going downhill fast.”

The agency defends its legal position, and rejects speculation about its motives. It contends the judgment was unwarranted and should be overturned.

In August 2000, Wilson was hit by the doors of a Red Line subway car, which she claims closed without the customary warning bell as she walked onto the train. She fell, hit her head on concrete and ended up hospitalized for two weeks.

Doctors diagnosed her with an arthritis-like condition, which they said had been caused by the fall, and prescribed steroid therapy to be taken for the rest of her life.

Wilson sued, and when the MTA turned down an offer to settle for about $40,000, the case went to court. Superior Court Judge Soussan G. Bruguera sided with Wilson, and ordered the agency to pay her $1.36 million in damages. Since then, the two sides have been engaged in a drawn out legal tussle.

In December, the MTA turned down offers from Wilson’s lawyers to settle for $450,000, money that she said would be used to move to an assisted-living facility, since she now lives alone. The MTA chose to appeal instead. In June, the agency must file legal briefs for its appeal, which may not be heard for months.

Wilson and her lawyers contend the MTA is intentionally trying to slow the case down. If the agency is awarded a new trial and she dies, the case will be thrown out. The MTA denies that Wilson’s age has anything to do with its actions.

While acknowledging that the subway doors closed on Wilson “quickly and without warning,” Steve Carnevale, the MTA’s chief legal counsel, said the injuries she suffered didn’t merit a payout of $1.36 million, or even the $40,000 that was originally offered.

“I realize this is complicated by the age of the woman, but this would have been no different if the person involved was a 12-year old,” he said.

Since 1994, the MTA has been hit with an average of 3,616 injury claims a year, records show. An average of 884 per year have ended in court judgments or, far more commonly, been settled out of court. During that time, the agency has spent about $15 million a year on injury judgments or settlements. This fiscal year, the agency will pay out more than $18.5 million.

The MTA credits its stiff review of claims to weed out the frivolous as the reason most end up without settlement. If the agency denies a claim, a rider can pursue the case in court. Most choose not to do so.

“We have 2,000 buses on the road a day,” Carnevale said. “They are big vehicles in a crowded city. There are going to be accidents and a lot of times it is our fault.... We have to figure out what is fair, what a decent settlement is and make that offer. If the other side disagrees and offers something dramatically different, then you try it.”

Some lawyers who have worked on personal injury cases against the MTA said they aren’t surprised by the agency’s stance in the Wilson case.

“They tend to drag it out if they think it’s going to be an advantage,” said Oscar Gutierrez, a lawyer who represented a 32-year-old teacher, Maria Torres, who broke her ankle on an MTA bus. Torres recently settled with the MTA for $300,000, nearly two years after she filed her injury claim.

“Sometimes you get the feeling they want to wear down your client,” Gutierrez said, “so that you might just get tired and end up taking less.”

Other lawyers describe the MTA as a tough but honorable legal adversary.

“They surprised me by their integrity,” said George Rosenberg, who represented Sally Moore, an 88-year-old woman whose husband was run over and killed by an MTA bus last year. Moore received $450,000 from the MTA, according to the agency.

“They could have waited it out until my client died, but they didn’t,” Rosenberg said. “They did what was appropriate and right.”